3.

MUSCLE PHYSIOLOGY
HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY
BY- LIUL M.
FOR –
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Out line
• Introduction
• Functions of muscle tissue
• Physiologic Characteristics of muscle tissue
• Classification /Types of muscles
• Structures of muscle
• Sarcomere
• General Mechanism of Muscle Contraction
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Introduction
• Muscles: refers to all the contractile tissues of the
body which include skeletal, cardiac & smooth
muscles of the body.
• Myology /Sarcolgy/-Is a science that concerned with
muscles and their accessory parts like tendons,
aponeurosis bursa & fascia.
• There are ≈ 600 skeletal muscles in the human body
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Cont…
• Can be excited chemically, electrically + mechanically.
• Contractile mechanisms (actin + myosin) that can be
activated by AP.
• Are highly specialized group of cells, which provide
motion, maintenance of posture and heat production.
• consists of 45-50% of the total body mass ( 600
muscles)
▫ Skeletal muscles 40% of the total muscle mass.
▫ Cardiac 10% &
▫ Smooth muscles (50%).
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Functions of muscle tissue

1. Motion: Motion is obvious in movements such
as walking and running, and in localized
movements, such as grasping a pencil or
nodding the head. These movements rely on the
integrated functioning of bones, joints, and
skeletal muscles.
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Cont…
2. Stabilizing body positions
• Besides producing movements, skeletal muscle
contractions maintain the body in stable
positions, such as standing or sitting. Postural
muscles display sustained contractions when a
person is awake, for example, partially
contracted neck muscles hold the head upright.
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Cont…
3. regulating the volume of cavities in the
body
• In addition, the volumes of the body cavities are
regulated through the contractions of skeletal
muscles. For example muscles of respiration
regulate the volume of the thoracic cavity during
the process of breathing.
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Cont…
4. Thermo genesis (generation of heat).
• As skeletal muscle contracts to perform work, a
by-product is heat. Much of the heat released by
muscle is used to maintain normal body
temperature. Muscle contractions are thought to
generate as much as 85% of all body heat.
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Physiologic Characteristics of muscle tissue

• Muscle tissue has four principal characteristics
that enable it to carry out its functions and thus
contribute to homeostasis.
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Cont…
1. Excitability (irritability), a property of both
muscle and nerve cells (neurons), is the ability to
respond to certain stimuli by producing
electrical signal called action potentials
(impulses). For example, the stimuli that trigger
action potentials are chemicals-
neurotransmitters, released by neurons,
hormones distributed by the blood.
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Cont…
2. Contractility is the ability of muscle tissue to
shorten and thicken (contract), thus generating
force to do work. Muscles contract in response to
one or more muscle action potentials.
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Cont…
3. Extensibility means that the muscle can be
extended (stretched) without damaging the
tissue. Most skeletal muscles are arranged in
opposing pairs. While one is contracting, the
other not only relaxed but also usually is being
stretched.
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Cont…
4. Elasticity means that muscle tissue tends to
return to its original shape after contraction or
extension.
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Classification /Types of muscles

1. Skeletal muscle
• Have well developed cross striations.
• Voluntary muscle tissue.
• Cells are long and multinucleated.
• Contract only in response to stimuli (no syncytial
bridges between cells).
• Are muscles attached to bones.
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Cont…
2. Cardiac muscle
• Have cross striation (banding pattern of thick and
thin filaments).
• Involuntary muscle tissue.
• Cells are branched and mononucleated.
• Have intercalated disc with gap junctions.
• Forms the wall of the heart
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Cont…
3. Smooth Muscle
• Located in the walls of hollow internal structures
like
• blood vessels, stomach, intestine & urinary bladder
• Is involuntary & non – striated.
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Structural arrangement & contractile unit of

the Skeletal Muscle
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Structures of muscle
• The muscle bundles are composed of many
elongated muscle cells called muscle fibres. Each
muscle fibre is a cylindrical cell containing
several nuclei located immediately beneath the
cell membrane (sarcolemma). The cytoplasm of
each muscle fibre (sarcoplasm) is filled with
myofibrils.
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Cont…
• Each myofibril is a thread-like structure that
extends from one end of the muscle fibre to the
other. Myofibrils consist of two major kinds of
protein fibres: actins or thin myofilaments,
and myosin or thick myofilaments.
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Cont…
• The actins and myosin myofilaments form highly
ordered units called sarcomers, which are
joined end-to-end to form the myofibrils.
Sarcomere is a structural and functional unit of
muscle tissue.
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Sarcomere
• It is the Functional unit of the skeletal muscles.
• It is the distance between two z-lines.
• It is Responsible for the striated appearance.
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Cont…
• Myofibrils are composed of three types of proteins:
(1) contractile proteins, which generate force during
contraction;
▫ The contractile proteins are myosin (thick filament)
and actin (thin filament).
(2) regulatory proteins, which help switch the
contraction process on and off;
▫ Regulatory proteins are tropomyosin and troponin,
both of which are part of the thin filament.
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Cont…
(3) structural proteins, which keep the thick and
thin filaments in the proper alignment, give the
myofibril elasticity and extensibility, and link the
myofibrils to the sarcolemma and extracellular
matrix.
▫ Structural proteins include titin, myomesin,
nebulin, and dystrophin (links thin filaments to
sarcolemma).
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Molecular geometry of sarcomere

A-Band
▫ The darker area in the centre of the sarcomere.
▫ It is due to the orderly arrangement of thick filaments.
▫ Thin filaments may extend into the A-band.
H-Band
▫ It contains only myosin tails (no myosin heads/no
cross-bridges)
▫ There are no thin filaments.
▫ More pronounce when the muscle is relaxed.
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Cont…
• M-line = middle/midline of the sarcomere
▫ Site of the reversal polarity of the myosin molecules in
each of the thick filaments.
▫ It vertically bisects the H-Band
▫ It contains 2 important proteins:
 Myomesin: a structural protein that links neighboring
thick/myosin filaments.
 Creatinine Phosphokinase: an enzyme that maintains
adequate ATP concentration in working muscle fibers.
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Cont…
I-Band
▫ The lighter area on either side of the z-lines.
▫ Each sarcomere contain half of the two I-bands.
▫ Contain only thin filaments.
Z-Line/Disc
▫ Dense line in the center of each light band (I
band).
▫ Separates one sarcomere from the next.
▫ It is the attachment site for the thin filaments.
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During muscular contraction:

• There is NO CHANGE in length of either the thick or
the thin filaments
• H-zone disappears and Z-line gets considerably
darker.
• There is shortening of the sarcomere. ( A decrease of
I-band and H zone, While A-band remains κ).
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Thick Filament
• It is also called myosin (an actin-binding protein).
• Dimensions: has a width of 11-18 nm & Length of
1.6 µm.
• Composition of Myosin: has heavy chains & 4 light
chain
• 2 heads :
▫ Myosin head (cross-bridge) which is and Actin-binding site
& ATP-binding site (ATPase) where Hydrolyzes ATP.
▫ 1 long tail : form core of the thick filament.
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Orientation
• Head projects out on either side of the H-zone to swivel
in opposite directions to shorten the sarcomere.
• During rapid contraction each head form 5 cycles/sec,
thus sliding myosin & actin filaments by about 5µm/sec.
• In a resting muscle the cross-bridge is not attached to
the thin filaments & is oriented perpendicularly to the
myosin filaments.
• The thick filaments are suspended or assumed their
central position in the sarcomere because of their
attachments to the z-disc by titin.
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Thin Filaments
• They are called actins.
• Has a dimensions of 5nm, & L = 1µm
• Has the following protein components :
a. Globular proteins
i. Actins
ii. Troponins
b. Non-Globular proteins:
▫ Tropomyosin
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Tropomyosin
• A rod-shaped molecule stretched along each strand of thin
filament.
• 1 tropomyosin molecule covers seven actin monomers in
an actin filament.
• It blocks the binding sites of myosin on actin.
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Troponins
• Small globular units located at intervals along the
tropomyosin molecules.
a. Troponin T: it binds other troponin components (TnI
& C) to tropomyosin.
b. Troponin I: inhibits the interaction of myosin with
actin
c. Troponin C: it has the binding site for Ca2+ that
initiates contraction
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Transverse Tubule (T-tubule)

• It is an invagination of the surface of the
sarcolemma.
• It is found at the junction of A-I bands.
• One end of the tube is open to extracellular
space, but its other end is closed.
• Function: rapid transmission of AP from the
cell membrane to all the fibers on the muscle.
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Molecular mechanisms of regulating

muscle contraction
Regulatory Role of Troponin-Tropomyosin System 
• Resting state: Troponin I and Tropomyosin covers
the sites where myosin heads bind to actin.
• (At rest: interaction of thick and thin filaments is
inhibited).
• Troponin-Tropomyosin complex is called “Relaxing-
Protein” because it inhibits the interaction between
myosin and actin.
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Cont…
Contractile state:
• The invading action potential to T-Tubule → Ca2+
released from SR → binds to troponin C → binding
of troponin I to actin is weakened → tropomyosin
moves laterally → uncovers binding sites for myosin
heads → contraction (in the presence of ATP).
• Seven myosin-binding sites are uncovered for each
molecule of troponin that binds a Ca2+.
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Regulation of ATP
• When Actin binds with myosin ATP + Ca2+ → Conraction
• When Actin binds with myosin ATP - Ca2+ → Relaxation
• ATP is also needed for relaxation.
• 3 ATP molecules are needed:
i. For the formation of the actin-myosin complex
ii. For the initiation of relaxation.
iii. To pump out Ca2+ from the sarcoplasm
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Excitation-Contraction Coupling/
Electromechanical Coupling
• is the process of linking ∆Em/AP to muscle
contraction.
• It is an electrical events precedes mechanical events
taking a time interval between 2ms &100ms
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General Mechanism of Muscle

Contraction
The initiation and execution of muscle contraction occur
in the following sequential steps.
1. An action potential travels along a motor nerve to its
endings on muscle fibers.
2. At each ending, the nerve secretes a small amount of the
neurotransmitter substance acetylcholine.
3. The acetylcholine acts on a local area of the muscle
fiber membrane to open multiple “acetylcholine gated”
channels through protein molecules floating in the
membrane.
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Cont…
4. Opening of the acetylcholine-gated channels allows
large quantities of sodium ions to diffuse to the
interior of the muscle fiber membrane. This initiates
an action potential at the membrane.
5. The action potential travels along the muscle fiber
membrane in the same way that action potentials
travel along nerve fiber membranes.
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Cont…
6. The action potential depolarizes the muscle
membrane, and much of the AP electricity flows
through the center of the muscle fiber.
• it causes the sarcoplasmic reticulum to release large
quantities of calcium ions that have been stored
within this reticulum.
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Cont…
7. The calcium ions initiate attractive forces between
the actin and myosin filaments, causing them to slide
alongside each other, which is the contractile process.
8. After a fraction of a second, the calcium ions are
pumped back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum by a
Ca++ membrane pump, and they remain stored in the
reticulum until a new muscle action potential comes
along; this removal of calcium ions from the
myofibrils causes the muscle contraction to cease.
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SMOOTH MUSCLE
• It is important in regulation of the airways,
blood vessels, GIT, and hollow organs (bladder,
uterus...)
• It is controlled by intrinsic factors (inherent
rhythmicity): ANS + HORMONES.
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