SKELETAL MUSCLES

· Individual muscle fibers stimulated by somatic

motor neuron
· each motor neuron branches to innervates a
number of neurons
· activation of varying number of motor neurons
results in gradations in the strength of
contraction of the whole muscle
· the more movable bony attachment of the
muscle is known as insertion
· the muscle is pulled towards its less movable
attachment known as origin
· The prime mover of any skeletal movement is
called agonist muscle e.g flexor
· the muscles that acts on same joint to produce
opposite actions are antagonistic muscles

STRUCTURE OF SKELETAL MUSCLE

 Epi(above)mysium(muscle)
(fibrous connective tissue within tendon extend
around the muscle in an irregular arrangement,
forming a sheath)
Fascicles
(connective tissue from above extends into the body
of muscles , subdividing it into columns)
Peri(around)mysium
(each fascicle is surrounded by its own connective
tissue sheath)
Endomysium
(basement membrane or basal lamina of muscle
fiber)
(thin connective tissue layer enveloping the plasma
membrane or sarcolemma of muscle fibers)
Sarcolemma
(each muscle fascicle is composed of muscle fibers.
Each of which is surrounded by sarcolemma)
· shape of muscle fibers is elongated.They are
multinucleate(Synctial structure).
· Straited appearance bcz of dark and light bands
· Dark band( A band from anisotropic)
· Light band ( I band isotropic)
· Thin dark lines in the middle of I band are Z
lines
· Graded contraction ( where contraction
strength is varied)
· motor end plate (specialized region of
sarcolemma)
· end plate potential (ACh from somatic neuron
upon depolariztion releases, nd stimulate
nicotinic receptors on endplate leading to
depolarization )
· motor unit ( Each somatic motor
neuron,together with all of the muscle fibers
that it innervate, is known as motor unit)
· graded contraction of whole muscles are
produced by variations in the number of motor
units that are activated.
STRUCTURE OF SARCOMERE
· Each subunit is composed of many subunits
known as myofibrils.
· Each myofibril contains even smaller structures
called myofilaments i.e thick & thin filament
· A band contain thick filament (Composed of
myosin). Thin filaments also extend into A band.
· I band contain thin filament (composed of
actin). Lighter area extended from the edge of
one stack of thick filament to the edge of next
stack of thick filament.
· H band (H for helle means bright) contains only
thick filaments. It is a central region brighter
than edges where thick and thin filaments
overlap
· Z line is thick dark line in the centre of I band
· M line is produced by protein filaments located
at the centre of the thick filaments ( A band).
which serve to anchor the thick filaments,
helping them to stay together during
contraction
· Titin filaments has amino terminal end in a Z
 disc, a spring like portion running through the I
band and a longer portion bound to the thick
filament all the way to M line.
· The subunits from Z to Z are known as
sarcomere

MECHANISM OF CONTRACTION