Muscle Tissue

What is Muscle Tissue?

• Composed of cells that are highly specialized to shorten in
length by contractility
• Mesodermal in origin
• Made up of cells that are called myocytes.
• Elongated in one direction (muscle fibres).
• Muscle fibres are elongated cells which contain contractile
proteins, mainly Actin and Myosin.
• Interaction between these proteins bring about contraction.
 Introduction
• All activities that involve movement depend on muscles
• 650 muscles in the human body
• Various purposes for muscles for:
– Locomotion
– Upright posture
– Balancing on two legs
– Support of internal organs
– Controlling valves and body openings
– Production of heat
– Movement of materials along internal tubes
Muscle Tissue
 Smooth Muscle
• Spindle elongated cells with centrally placed oval nucleus
• 30 micron in length
• Non-striated, involuntary
• Supplied by Autonomic Nervous System
• Adjacent smooth muscle cells are in contact with each other
through gap junctions which help to transmit the electric
impulses from one cell to another.
Smooth Muscle
 Cardiac Muscle
• Striated and involuntary; Consists of long and thick branching
muscle fibres
• Present exclusively in heart
• Originates in splanchnopleuric mesoderm.
• Intercalated discs- specialized cell junctions. These junctions are gap
junctions & Desmosomes
• Acts as a FUNCTIONAL SYNCYTIUM. Centrally placed single oval
nucleus
• Supplied by ANS (sympathetic & parasympathetic) Intercalated
discs- specialized cell junctions
 Microscopic structure of Cardiac Muscle
• Consists of long and thick branching muscle fibres
• Intercalated discs- specialized cell junctions. These junctions
are gap junctions & Desmosomes
• Acts as a FUNCTIONAL SYNCYTIUM. Centrally placed single
oval nucleus
• Faint transverse lines
• Supplied by ANS (sympathetic & parasympathetic)
Cardiac Muscle
 Skeletal Muscle
• Skeletal muscles are muscles which are attached to the skeleton.
• 40% of human body mass
• Skeletal muscles are mainly responsible for locomotion, and voluntary
contraction and relaxation.
• Striated or voluntary muscle
• Present mainly in limbs and in relation to body wall.
• Elongated, Cylindrical, multinucleated cells
• Varies in length from a few mm to few cm.
• Alternate dark & light bands (cross-striations).
• Mostly originate from somatic mesoderm
• Basic unit is long, cylindrical fiber
 General Architecture
• Skeletal Muscle fibres are supported by Connective Tissue framework,
well appreciated in cross section of a muscleFibres are arranged
parallel to each other.
• Formed by fusion of multiple myoblasts during embryonic life.
• Myofibrils: contractile elements
• Sarcomere: fundamental contractile unit
• Myofilaments: contain thick (myosin) and thin (actin) filaments
• Nerve supply:
Motor fibres
Sensory fibres
Skeletal Muscle
 Structure of Skeletal muscles
• Cell structure
– Muscles cells contain many nuclei
– The plasma membrane→ sarcolemma
– The cytoplasm→ sarcoplasm
– Length
– ranges from 0.1cm to more the 30cm in length
– Diameter
– ranges from 0.001cm to 0.01cm in diameter
• Myofibrils→
– elongated protein molecules
– aligned in parallel arrangements
– extend the full length of the cell.
 Skeletal Muscle Myosin
• Thick myofilament
• consists of a large number of bundled myosin molecules aligned in overlapping arrays.
• hexameric proteins with two identical heavy chains and two pairs of different light chains.
– regulatory light chain (RLC)
– essential light chain (ELC)
 Skeletal Muscle Actin
• The thin myofilament (F-actin, filamentous actin)
– made up of two helically intertwined chains of G-actin (globular actin) units.
• Other proteins that bind to the actin molecules:
• Tropomyosin
• The Troponin complex→ made up of three members
Red vs white fibres
 The difference between smooth muscle and skeletal muscles

1. Histological differences
❖Smooth muscle cells are small
❖No striations (absence of sarcomeres)
❖No T-tubules
❖The thick and thin filaments are dispersed throughout the cell. Thin filaments (actin) are
anchored into dense bodies (a Z-line equivalent) which are either anchored to the cell
membrane but most of them float within the cytoplasm and hold together by Intermediate
filaments
❖No Troponin
Striated muscle
EPOC
Muscle fatigue
Muscle atrophy
Muscle dystrophy
Muscle cachexia.
 3-The membrane potential differences
❖The resting membrane potential of smooth muscle is usually about –50 to –60 mv
❖The action potentials of visceral smooth muscle occur in two different forms
❖The smooth muscle cell membrane has far more voltage-gated Ca channels and few
voltage-gated Na channels than skeletal muscle fiber
❖The junction between the nerve terminals and smooth muscles are called diffuse junction
❖The neurotransmitter at the neuromuscular junction of skeletal muscle is only acetylcholine,
while of smooth muscle are acetylcholine or norepinephrine
❖ Stress-relaxation of smooth muscle
Table 4.2: summary of the differences among the three types of muscles

Skeletal muscles Cardiac muscles Smooth muscles

Striated; actin and myosin Not striated; no sarcomeres,

Striated; actin and myosin
Microscopic appearance arranged actin anchored into dense
arranged in sarcomeres
in sarcomeres bodies and cell membrane

Somatic nervous system Autonomic nervous Autonomic nervous

Innervation
(alpha motor neurons) system system

Under voluntary control Under involuntary Under involuntary

Level of Control
Control control

Presence of Troponin Yes Yes No

Presence of T Tubules Yes Yes No

Source of Increased Sarcoplasmic From ECF and from From ECF and from
Cytosolic Ca2+ reticulum sarcoplasmic reticulum sarcoplasmic reticulum

Troponin in thin Troponin in thin Myosin in thick

Site of Ca2+ regulation
filaments filaments filaments
Presence of Gap Yes in single-unit smooth
No Yes
Junctions muscle

Length–Tension Relationship Yes but limited Yes No