Muscular System A

Dr Angela Owens
Recording 1
Functions

 Movement and stability

Tendons pull on bones
Pump blood or propel substances (food, faeces)

 Heat generation
Generates ~30% of body heat at rest
Enzyme function (metabolism)

 Glycaemic control
Absorbs large share of glucose and stores as glycogen (10 h supply)

 Influence other organs (crosstalk)

Upon exercise release myokines
Mitochondria increase in number and function

 Control of body openings and passages

e.g., sphincter muscles

 Intramuscular injection site

Gluteus medius (thick and very vascular)

Three types
1) Cardiac
2) Smooth
3) Skeletal
 Differ in structure, location, function and means of activation
 Skeletal and smooth muscle CELLS are elongated and are called muscle FIBRES
(FIBERS)

Skeletal muscle tissue

 Packaged into skeletal muscles that attach to and cover the bony skeleton
 Stripes called STRIATIONS
 Controlled VOLUNTARILY
 ~40% of male body weight
Skeletal muscles
 Composed of 1000’s of muscle fibres surrounded and bundled by fibrous connective
tissue
 Connective tissue limits the range of extensibility (stretch) and keeps it within the
contractile range of the muscle cells to avoid injury

Connective tissue layers

 Endomysium
encloses single muscle fibre, blood vessels and nerves, electrically insulates each fibre

 Perimysium
bundles 10-100 muscle fibres into a fascicle (grainy appearance of meat), vascular

 Epimysium
covers entire muscle
 Arrangement of fascicles determines the structural and functional properties of a
skeletal muscle

Connective tissue
 Continuous with collagen fibres of tendons which continuous with those of periosteum

▪ Muscle contracts, pulls on collagen, moves bone

▪ Collagen extensible and elastic (recoil)

▪ Thus, tendon resists overstretching and protects muscle

 Deep fascia

▪ Separates individual muscles

▪ External to epimysium

 Superficial fascia (hypodermis)

▪ Separates muscles from skin

Recording 2
Muscle cells
Skeletal muscle fibres
 Cylindrical, ~3 cm long
 Multiple nuclei (DNA) under sarcolemma (plasma membrane) makes fibre unable to
divide (repair limited)
 Sarcoplasm (cytoplasm) contains glycogen (glucose) and oxygen-binding protein called
MYOGLOBIN
 Usual organelles (e.g., mitochondria), but also

▪ Sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR)

▪ T (transverse) tubules

▪ Myofibrils (30 to 1,000’s per muscle fibre)

Sarcoplasmic reticulum
 Smooth endoplasmic reticulum that runs longitudinally and surrounds each myofibril
(Like sleeve of a lacy shirt over an arm)
 SR sacs (cisterna) store calcium ions (Ca2+)

T Tubules
 Tunnel-like infoldings of sarcolemma
 Conduct electrical impulses into interior of muscle fibre
 These trigger release of Ca2+ from SR
 This Ca2+ triggers muscle to contract

Myofibrils
 Are densely packed, rod-like, contractile organelles IN a muscle fibre (cell)
 Precise arrangement generates the repeating series of dark A bands and light I bands
 Aligned like cigarettes in a packet
 Myofibrils are chains of contractile units called sarcomeres (train carriages, segments)
Sarcomere
 Each sarcomere shortens by the sliding and overlapping of special proteins within it
 A sarcomere is the region between two successive Z discs
 Z-discs are a sheet of proteins

▪ Anchor point for the special proteins called Myosin and Actin that slide

Sarcomere
MYOSIN (Thick filaments)
extend entire length of dark A band
ACTIN (Thin filaments)
extend across light I band and partway into dark A band and are attached to the Z
discs

Myosin filaments
 Made up of several hundred myosin molecules
 Each MYOSIN molecule is like a golf club with a rod-like tail and two heads (cross
bridges)
 Held in cocked position (bent elbow, mouse trap)

Actin filaments
 Two strands of intertwined actin molecules
 Contain

▪ Binding sites for Myosin heads

▪ Proteins TROPOMYOSIN and TROPONIN that regulate binding of Myosin heads

to Actin

Sliding filament model (1954)

 In relaxed state, Actin and Myosin filaments overlap only slightly (Z discs far apart)
 Upon stimulation, hundreds of Myosin heads bind to Actin and ‘crawl’ along each thin
filament (millipede)
 This causes the Actin filaments to slide and overlap the Myosin filaments a lot which
shortens the sarcomere (Z discs closer together)
 Each Myosin head binds and detaches several times during contraction