MUSCLES Intro Muscle: tissue; organ o Specialized to perform a single function which is to shorten when stimulated, and thereafter

r to recover Shortening: result of chemical changes in 2 muscle proteins, actin and myosin o Shortening: if a muscle surrounds a lumen, the lumen is compressed o If it extends between 2 structures, one of these is drawn toward the other Nerve impulse: usual stimulus for muscle contraction except for cardiac muscles Muscle Tissues and Major Categories of Muscles Striated, Cardiac, and Smooth muscle tissues Striated muscle tissue o Composed of long, cylindrical, multinucleate muscle fibers, each with transverse bands and longitudinal striae Myofibrils: thread-like; causes longitudinal striations within the fiber Sarcomeres: consist the myofibrils along its length Myofilaments: consist each sarcomere; longitudinally oriented and proteinaceous Cross striations: caused by the perfect alignment of all the sarcomere within the muscle fiber o Striated muscle fiber is not a cell but a syncytium (single, functional unit) formed during histogenesis Sarcolemma: delicate plasma membrane o Muscle fibers assemble to form skeletal muscles consisting of the connective, vascular, and neural tissues Provide mechanical support, tensile strength, metabolic needs, and stimuli for contraction o Motor end plate: portion of the sarcolemma with receptors for neurotransmitters; where impulses arrive at motor nerve endings and cause release of neurotransmitter amines o Nerve endings depress the sarcolemma but do not pierce it Motor end plate initiates stimuli along the sarcolemma biochemical interactions between the actin and myosin shortening of the sarcomeres o Hypothesis: reaction causes actin molecules to slide toward one another o Sarcomeres shorten myofibrils bulge entire muscle shortens and thickens

o Single nerve cell supplies motor end plates on many muscle fibers; a functional group of muscle fibers (motor unit) contract simultaneously Larger number of motor unites stimulated, greater effect of contraction Cardiac muscle tissue o Unique variety of striated muscle tissue; contains myofibrils and filaments of actin and myosin; mechanisms of contraction are essentially the same o Difference are: Cells are generally uninucleate Cells are separated by unique boundaries, intercalated disks Can contact without nervous stimulation Innervated by fibers of the autonomic nervous system o Intercalated disks: link cytoplasms of adjacent cells; facilitates ion transport and rapid passage of action potentials o Regularly self-polarizes (myogenic); conducts impulses through its own system of fibers o Autonomic nerves: modify the rhythmicity of myogenic activity Smooth muscle tissue o Fuisform, uninucleate, have myofibrils, lack cross striations o Occurs often in sheets as part of an organ o Innervated by autonomic nervous system Major Categories of Muscles Somatic muscles o Orient the body (soma) of the organism in the external environment o Striated muscles that are attached to the ligaments, tendons, and bones of the axial skeleton, to the appendicular skeleton, and to the skeletal components of the lateral and ventral body walls o Innervated by spinal nerves except that operate the tongue o Voluntary: if they can be contracted at will Does not preclude reflex contraction when the body is endangered or when a tendon is unavoidably stretched o Somatic muscles: derivatives (ontogenetically or phylogenetically) of the myotomes of mesodermal somites Hence, they are often referred as myotomal or somitic muscles Visceral muscles o Maintain an appropriate internal milieu o Smooth muscles of hollow organs, vessels, tubes, and ducts; intrinsic musculature of the eyeballs; erector muscles of feather and hair o Include cardiac muscle

Muscles

o Derived from splanchnic mesoderm; innervated by the autonomic nervous system Branchiomeric somatic muscles o Belong to the pharyngeal arches and their ontogenetic or phylogenetic derivatives from fishes to human beings o Striated skeletal muscles o Myotomal in origin; derived from the most anterior somites and unsegmented paraxial mesoderm in the head Somitomeres: individual subdivisions of the paraxial mesoderm; not fully segmented and lack sclerotome and dermatome components; innervated by cranial nerves Somatic and visceral muscles contrasted Somatic Visceral Striated, skeletal, Smooth, nonskeletal, voluntary involuntary Primitively segmented Unsegmented Myotomal Arise mostly from lateral mesoderm Mostly in body wall and Mostly in splanchnopleure appendages Primarily for orientation in Regulate internal external environment environment Innervated directly by Innervated by spinal nerves and cranial postganglionic fibers of nerves III, IV, VI, and XII autonomic nervous system Introduction to Skeletal Muscles Skeletal muscles as Organs Skeletal muscles: consist of muscular and tendonous portions Epimysium or muscle fascia: tough, glistening fibrous sheath surrounding a muscle o Consists of collagenous connective tissue and elastic fibers in small amounts that vary with the muscle Fascicles: major bundles of muscle fibers Perymisium: surrounds the fascicles; penetrates the bundles to encapsulate smaller fascicles Endomysium: very fine collagenous reticulum which support the muscular, neural, and vascular components of each functional unit of muscle; a continuation of the perimysium o Surrounds each individual muscle fiber superficial to the sarcolemma Tendons: continuation of muscle beyond the site where fascicles end o Collagenous bundles of the perimysium and epimysium continue into and become part of the tendon o Site of attachment of the tendon to the skeleton, the collagenous bundles of the tendon continue

into and contribute to the perichondrium or periosteum of the bone o Tension produced by muscle contraction is transmitted throughout the entire organ Twitch and tonic muscle fibers o Contractile fiber types: provide the best classification across taxa; found in most taxa and differ in their proportions o Twitch fibers: predominant fiber in mammals with tonic fibers restricted to extrinsic eye muscles and ear muscles; perform a wide range of functions Slow twitch fibers are associated with a richer blood supply and large amounts of myoglobin Fast glycolytic twitch fibers represent those that are capable of great power in the absence of oxygen during periods of exertion o Continued use of either fast or slow fibers results in increase in the size of the fiber o Androgens: predominant gonadal hormones of males Inasmuch as muscle is 80 percent protein, androgen produces statistically demonstrably larger muscles in males

Chapter 10