Skeletal, Smooth and Cardiac Muscle Flashcards
(115 cards)
What do muscles do?
Generate force and movement
What are the three types of muscles?
Skeletal, smooth and cardiac
What type of tissue are muscles made up from?
Excitable tissue - made of cells that can alter their membrane potentials in response to a stimuli, and generate action potentials.
What muscles are striated?
Skeletal
Cardiac
What are examples of smooth muscle?
Blood vessels
Airways
Uterus
GI tract
Bladder
What causes striations in muscle tissue?
The striations are caused by the regular arrangement of contractile proteins (actin and myosin) aka sacromere
Discuss features of the skeletal muscle
Multinuculated
Increase in fibre size during growth
Myoblasts do not replace cells if damaged
How are skeletal muscles formed?
In utero from mononucleated myoblasts
How are muscles stored?
Bundles of fibres encased in connective tissue sheaths
How do skeletal muscles attach to bones?
Via tendons
What happens to skeletal muscle after injury?
Cells replaced after injury by satellite cells
Satellite cells differentiate to form new muscle fibres
Muscle will never completely recover
What is a sarcomere?
The smallest functional unit of striated muscle tissue.
Discuss the anatomy of a sarcomere
It is bordered by a Z-band on each end with adjacent I-bands, and there is a central M-line with adjacent H-bands and partially overlapping A-bands.
What does the sliding filament theory explain?
The mechanism of muscle contraction is based on muscle proteins that slide past each other to generate movement.
Describe the sliding filament theory.
The myosin (thick filaments) of muscle fibers slide past the actin (thin filaments) during muscle contraction, while the two groups of filaments remain at relatively constant length.
What are the thick and thin filaments of muscle?
Thick - myosin
Thin - actin
What are the stages of the myosin cross-bridge cycle?
- Cross-bridge binds to actin
- Cross-bridge moves
- ATP binds to myosin, causing cross-bridge death
- Hydrolysis of ATP energizes cross-bridges
What does tropomyosin cover?
Partially covers myosin binding site
Where is tropomyosin held?
In blocking positions by troponin
What binds to troponin?
Calcium
How does troponin alter the shape of the myosin binding site?
By pulling tropomyosin away, removing calcium and blocking the site again
What makes up a motor unit?
Motor neurons + muscle fibres
Where can muscles be found within a unit?
Scattered through the muscle
Define tension
Force exerted by muscle