HUMAN HISTOLOGY (LECTURE)

LESSON 6: MUSCLE TISSUE (ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY)

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2nd SEMESTER I S.Y. 2021-2022
TRANCRIBED BY: JEAN HERSHEY REYES

Functional Characteristics of Muscle Tissue Skeletal Muscle

 Excitability, or irritability – the ability to receive and respond to

stimuli
 Contractility – the ability to shorten forcibly (most important)
 Extensibility – the ability to be stretched or extended
 Elasticity – the ability to recoil and resume the original resting
length

Muscle Overview

 The three types of muscle tissue are skeletal, cardiac, and

smooth
o These types differ in structure, location, function, and
means of activation

Cardiac Muscle

 Cardiac muscle cells branch, are striated,

are uninucleate (B) and have intercalated
discs (A).

o Locations: heart  Muscle fibers arranged in groups (fascicle)

o Function: involuntary, rhythmic o Epimysium enclose the entire (dense irregular)
contraction o Perimysium surrounds the individual fascicle
o Endomysium individually wrapped the muscle fiber
 Muscle fibers, myocytes and myoid cells
 Number and location of nucleus: 1-2 Myofibrils
nuclei (central portion of muscle fiber)

Skeletal Muscle

 Skeletal muscle cells run the full length of a

muscle. The striations are characteristics of
this muscle type. These cells are
multinucleated.

o Location: muscles associated with

the skeleton
o Function: voluntary movement

 Muscle fiber is cylindrical but longer

 There is no branch
 Arranged in parallel
 Several nuclei in periperium.
 Basic structural and functional unit of the muscle tissue
o Dark A Band- Anisotropic band
Smooth Muscle (Visceral Muscle) o Light I Band- isotropic band
 They are responsible for striated
 Smooth muscle cells are spindle shaped
and uninucleate (center of the cell) Sarcomeres
o Locations: walls of hollow organs,
i.e. stomach, intestine, uterus,
ureter
o Functions: involuntary movement

 Only muscle tissue type that is non-striated.

 Small contractile unit; occupy the region where the Z-discs is

found.
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 o Z-disc- Zwischenscheibe disc (between)
o H-Zone- Heller Zone
Myofilaments: Banding Pattern
 Myofilaments is a threadlike structures
Ultrastructure of Myofilaments: Thick Filaments
Ultrastructure of Myofilaments: Thick Filaments
 Thick filaments are composed of the protein myosin
 Each myosin molecule has a rod like tail and two globular heads
o Tails – two interwoven, heavy polypeptide chains
o Heads – two smaller, light polypeptide chains called
cross bridges
Ultrastructure of Myofilaments: Thin Filaments
 single tail and two heads
 Six polypeptide chains
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Ultrastructure of Myofilaments: Thin Filaments
 Thin filaments are chiefly composed of the protein actin
 Tropomyosin and troponin are regulatory subunits bound to
actin
o Myosin is 60%
o Actin is 15%
o Troponin and Tropomyosin are the regulatory protein
Arrangement of the Filaments in a Sarcomere
 light and clear
 There wouldn’t be interaction or overlapping
Sarcoplasmic Reticulum (SR)
TRIAD- 1 tubule and pair of terminal
o Counterpart of dyad (1 pair and 1 tube)
Tubules of Sarcoplasmic- capture and stores iron
Sarcoplasmic Reticulum (SR)
 SR smooth endoplasmic reticulum that mostly runs
longitudinally and surrounds each myofibril
 Paired terminal cisternae form perpendicular cross channels
 Functions in the regulation of intracellular calcium levels
T-Tubules
 T tubules are continuous with the sarcolemma
 They conduct impulses to the deepest regions of the muscle
 These impulses signal for the release of Ca2+from adjacent
terminal cisternae
 Muscle Cell Contraction  Tension increases to the muscle’s capacity, but the muscle
neither shortens nor lengthens
Sliding Filament Theory  Occurs if the load is greater than the tension the muscle is able
to develop
 When muscle contracts, the thin filament and thick filament
will pass to each other. Muscle Metabolism: Energy for Contraction

Excitation of a Muscle Fiber  ATP is the only source used directly for contractile activity
 As soon as available stores of ATP (36) are hydrolyzed (4-6
seconds), they are regenerated by:
o The interaction of ADP (1) with creatine phosphate (CP)
o Anaerobic glycolysis
o Aerobic respiration

Muscle Fiber Type: Functional Characteristics

 Speed of contraction – determined by speed in which ATPases

split ATP
o The two types of fibers are slow and fast

 ATP-forming pathways
o Oxidative fibers – use aerobic pathways
o Glycolytic fibers – use anaerobic glycolysis

 These two criteria define three categories – slow oxidative fibers,

fast oxidative fibers, and fast glycolytic fibers

Muscle Fiber Type: Speed of Contraction

 Slow oxidative fibers contract slowly, have slow acting myosin

Contraction  Myosin ATPase in myosin head ATPases, and are fatigue resistant (slow twitch/red muscle fibers)
(Steps 10 & 11) hydrolyzes an ATP molecule,
activating the head and “cocking” it  Fast oxidative fibers contract quickly, have fast myosin
 Step 10: Activation in an extended position ATPases, and have moderate resistance to fatigue (fast twitch or
and cocking of white muscle fiber)
myosin bond  It binds to an active site on actin
 Step 11: formation of  Myosis- co-factor of ATP  Fast glycolytic fibers contract quickly, have fast myosin
myosin-actin cross- ATPases, and are easily fatigued (intermediate fiber)
bridge
Relaxation  Step 17: Loss of calcium ions from Smooth Muscle
(Steps 17 & 18) troponin
 Step 18: Return of Tropomyosin to
 Composed of spindle-shaped fibers with a diameter of 2-10 μm
position blocking active sites of
and lengths of several hundred μm
actin
 Lack the coarse connective tissue sheaths of skeletal muscle, but
have fine endomysium
Isotonic Contractions  Organized into two layers (longitudinal and circular) of closely
apposed fibers
 In isotonic contractions, the muscle changes in length  Found in walls of hollow organs (except the heart)
(decreasing the angle of the joint) and moves the load  Have essentially the same contractile mechanisms as skeletal
 The two types of isotonic contractions are concentric and eccentric muscle

o Concentric contractions – the muscle shortens and Microscopic Anatomy of Smooth Muscle
does work (most common happen)
o Eccentric contractions – the muscle contracts as it
 SR is less developed than in skeletal muscle and lacks a specific
lengthens (found at the back muscle and neck muscle)
pattern
 T tubules are absent
Isotonic Contractions
 Plasma membranes have pouch like infoldings called caveoli
 Ca2+is sequestered in the extracellular space near the caveoli,
allowing rapid influx when channels are opened
 There are no visible striations and no sarcomeres
 Thin and thick filaments are present
o Skeletal (6:1)
o Smooth (15:1)
o Cardiac (10:1)

Proportion and Organization of Myofilaments in Smooth Muscle

 Ratio of thin to thick filaments is higher than in skeletal muscle

 Thick filaments have heads along their entire length
 There is no troponin complex
 Thick and thin filaments are arranged diagonally, causing
smooth muscle to contract in a corkscrew manner
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 Noncontractile intermediate filament bundles attach to dense
bodies (analogous to Z discs) at regular intervals

Contraction of Smooth Muscle

 Whole sheets of smooth muscle exhibit slow, synchronized

contraction
 They contract in unison, reflecting their electrical coupling with
gap junctions
 Action potentials are transmitted from cell to cell

Some smooth muscle cells:

o Act as pacemakers (interstitial of cajal)- furkinji fibers and set
the contractile pace for whole sheets of muscle
o Are self-excitatory and depolarize without external stimuli

Types of Smooth Muscle: Single Unit

 The cells of single-unit smooth muscle, commonly called visceral

muscle:
o Contract rhythmically as a unit
o Are electrically coupled to one another via gap junctions
o Often exhibit spontaneous action potentials
o Are arranged in opposing sheets and exhibit stress-
relaxation response

Types of Smooth Muscle: Multiunit

 Multiunit smooth muscles are found:

o In large airways to the lungs
o In large arteries
o In arrector pili muscles
o Attached to hair follicles
o In the internal eye muscles

 Their characteristics include:

o Rare gap junctions
o Infrequent spontaneous depolarizations
o Structurally independent muscle fibers
o A rich nerve supply, which, with a number of muscle
fibers, forms motor units
o Graded contractions in response to neural stimuli

Special Features of Smooth Muscle Contraction

 Unique characteristics of smooth muscle include:

o Smooth muscle tone
o Slow, prolonged contractile activity
o Low energy requirements

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