Bethany Lehnert

Skeletal Lab Report

Skeletal muscle have many different parts, including myofibrils, sarcomeres. When looking at the
muscle fiber you will see that almost the entire cross section is taken up by strands of proteins called
myofibrils. From there the myofibrils is divided into segments called sarcomeres. Sarcomeres are
composed of thick and thin filaments. The thick filaments are comprised of a protein called myson.
Acton is the main protein of the thin filament
http://courses.washington.edu/conj/motor/musclereview.htm
Unfortulany in life there are diseases and
many that are being studied including the skeletal muscle. Dr.Wagner describes in her study that disease
called myopathy. This affects the muscle by making the fibers to split and to be replaced with fat
fibrosis. A type of cancer called muscular dystrophy affects the growth of muscle as a child ages
resulting in the loss of the ability to be able to walk by the age of 12 and could lead to death in early
adulthood. (Wagner 2011)

(Figure one) In this drawing you are seeing the different layers of skeletal muscle.
The following steps of contraction are defined by A&Ms Meat Science Lab as:
(1) The sequence of events leading to contraction is initiated somewhere in the central nervous system,
either as voluntary activity from the brain or as reflex activity from the spinal cord.
(2) A motor neuron in the ventral horn of the spinal cord is activated, and an action potential passes
outward in a ventral root of the spinal cord.
(3) The axon branches to supply a number of muscle fibers called a motor unit, and the action potential
is conveyed to a motor end plate on each muscle fiber.
(4) At the motor end plate, the action potential causes the release of packets or quanta of acetylcholine
into the synaptic clefts on the surface of the muscle fiber.
(5) Acetylcholine causes the electrical resting potential under the motor end plate to change, and this
then initiates an action potential which passes in both directions along the surface of the muscle fiber.

(6) At the opening of each transverse tubule onto the muscle fiber surface, the action potential spreads
inside the muscle fiber.
(7) At each point where a transverse tubule touches part of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, it causes the
sarcoplasmic reticulum to release Ca++ ions.
(8) The calcium ions result in movement of troponin and tropomyosin on their thin filaments, and this
enables the myosin molecule heads to grab and swivel their way along the thin filament. This is the
driving force of muscle contraction.
All Credit is given to A&M University
http://meat.tamu.edu/ansc-307-honors/muscle-contraction/

(Figure two) This drawing is an example of skeletal muscle contraction. In the top picture you are seeing
the muscle before contraction occurs and in the bottom picture is after the muscle contracts. The muscle
is pulling together to make contraction occur.
http://www.thinglink.com/scene/612743906064334849

Before ATP

Figure three

Photos By Bethanie Ortiz

Figure four

After ATP

Before ATP

Length of fibers
after ATP

Degree of contraction Percent contraction

Trial one

14mm

10mm

23%

Trial two

15mm

12mm

20%

Trial three

22mm

15mm

31.81%

Trial four

18mm

11mm

38.88%

Trial five

13mm

8mm

38.46%

Dilation before
ATP

Dilation after
ATP

Degree of dilation
change

Percent of dilation
change

Trial one

3mm

7mm

-4

-133%

Trial two

7mm

14mm

-7

100%

Trial three

4mm

6mm

-2

.005

(Figure five) Data table from rabbit muscle lab

While doing the rabbit muscle lab we noticed many variations that contributed to the outcome of
our data. Some of which include: number of fibers, length of fibers, amount of ATP, time, and the
amount of heat/ light. These variations affect our data because ,for example, the amount of fibers would
affect how the results will be because if you have more than the normal amount of fibers then the ATP
will not have the effect on it than it should. In our data table we are using percent to show our results so
that the viewer may see the amount that the fibers grew.
Table 1
C
ontinuous Grip

Maximum force (N)

Time interval

Maximum force (N)

10 s

102.7

20

30 s

74.1

28.6

40

50 s

61.9

12.2

60

70 s

120.5

-58.6

80

90 s

102.5

18

Table one- continuous grip

Table 2

Repetitive Grip
Time interval

Maximum force (N)

10 s

13.3

20

30 s

8.7

Maximum force (N)

4.6

40

50 s

68.9

-60.2

60

70 s

6.7

62.2

80

90 s

40.6

-33.9

Table two-repetitive grip

Cross country runners have slower oxidative fibers whereas sprinters have faster glycolytic
fibers. Cross country runners muscles tend to be smaller and require less force. Sprinters have more
myofibrils and and require more force. A distance runner maintains a constant speed for a longer time
period of time due to the distance that they are running. A sprinter has a faster constant speed than a
distance runner because of the fact that they are running a shorter distance in a short period of time. A
sprinter will have lighter muscles because they have lower myelogen content due to the fact that they
require less oxygen being sent to the muscles. Since distance runners require more oxygen to the
muscles, the muscles will be darker due to the higher myelogen content.
Slow Oxidative

Fast
oxidative-glycolytic

Fast Glycolytic

Fiber Diameter

Smallest

Intermediate

Largest

Force

Lowest

Intermediate

Greatest

Myosin ATPase

Fastest

Faster

Slowest

Contraction velocity

Slow

Faster

Fastest

Methods of ATP
generation

Respiration

Glycolysis

Glycolysis

Glycogen Stores

High

Intermediate

Low

Capillaries

Many

Few

Few

Myoglobin Content

High

Intermediate

Low

Color

Red Brown

Red-Pink

White

Table three-From worksheet

How is the force data different in athletic women vs non- athlete women? On average,
according to the data, athlete women tend to have a stronger force. Athletes use a lot of fast glycolytic
fibers and could use these fibers more often due to more use of these fibers. These glycolytic fibers help
when doing activities that require physical activity because the athlete have better results than non
athletes. Non athletes have fast glycolytic fibers but they can not use them as much or as fast as athletes.
In the results below, all except one nonathletes subject had considerable lower results than the athlete
subjects.
Time interval

Maximum

2nd time
interval

Maximum

Athlete or
non-athlete

Subject One

20-30 seconds

99N

0-10 seconds

127N

No

Subject Two

0-10

70.3

40-50

114.3

No

Subject Three

0-10 seconds

118.7

0-10 seconds

155.8 N

No

Subject Four

0-10s

135.2

20-30s

178.1

Yes

Subject five

0-10s

159.8 N

0-10s

237.4 N

Yes

Subject six

0-10 s

117 n

0-10s

147 n

Yes

Table four- new question data

During the rabbit muscle lab we learn how the thin and thick finger contract and move after the
ATP was added to the middle. When learning about the muscles we learned that the darker muscles are
more oxidative and used more due to more activity. When the muscles are out lighter, they are less
used. In the continuous lab we collected data from several subjects and from the data we collected the
athletes tended, on average, to have higher results.