Anatomy Chapter 6: Muscular System

• 3 types of muscles – cardiac, skeletal, and smooth

○ Cardiac
 Only found in the heart
 Involuntarily controlled
 Striated, branched, cylindrical cells with intercalated discs
 Has a single nucleus in each cell
 Found in the walls of the heart
 Slow contraction speed
 Changes the internal volume of the heart as it contracts
○ Skeletal
 Found attached to bones
 Voluntarily controlled
 Striated
 Has several nuclei per cell
 Contains long, non-branching cylindrical cells
 Slow to fast contraction speed
 Concerned with locomotion of the body as a whole
○ Smooth
 Found in the walls of the stomach, uterus, and arteries
 Involuntarily controlled
 Has a single nucleus in each cell
 Contains spindle-shaped cells
 Changes internal volume of an organ as it contracts
 Very slow contraction speed
• Anatomy of a microscopic muscle cell
○ Perimysium
 a sheath of connective tissue which groups individual muscle fibers
(anywhere between 10 to 100 or more) into bundles or fascicles.
○ Epimysium
 Connective tissue that covers the entire muscle cell
○ Endomysium
 literally meaning within the muscle, is a layer of connective tissue that
unsheathes a muscle fiber and is composed mostly from reticular fibers. It
also contains capillaries, nerves and lymphatics.
○ Fascicle
 Bundle of muscle cells
○ Fiber
 Muscle cell
○ Myofilament
 Actin or myosin-containing
structure
○ Myofibril
 A long filamentous organelle
found within muscle cells that has
a banded appearance, one of
many contractile filaments that
make up a striated muscle fiber
○ Sarcolemma
 Plasma membrane of the muscle
○ Sacromere
 Basic contracting unit of muscle
cell consists of actin and myosin
filaments between z-lines in a
muscle cell
○ Tendon
 Cordlike extension of connective
tissue beyond the muscle, serving to attach it to the bone
• Muscle functions
○ Producing movement
 Responsible for all locomotion of the body
• Walking, running, swimming ect.
 Allow us to respond quickly to the external environment
 Allow us to express our emotions
 Smooth and cardiac muscle work together to circulate blood and maintain
blood pressure
 Smooth muscle of hollow organs force fluids and other substances through
internal body canals
○ Maintaining posture
  Functioning continuously, the muscles in our body maintain an erect or
seated posture
○ Stabilizing joints
○ Generating heat
 Heat is a bi-product of muscular activity
• Microscopic anatomy of skeletal muscle

○ Sarcolemma
 Plasma membrane of the muscle
○ Myofibril
 Long, ribbonlike organelles that fill the cytoplasm
 Bundles of myofilaments

○ Light (I) bands

○ Dark (A) bands
○ Sarcomeres
 Tiny contractile units
 Basic contracting unit of muscle cell consists of actin and myosin filaments
between z-lines in a muscle cell

○ Myofilament
  Actin or myosin-containing structure
○ Thick filaments/myosin filaments
 Made mostly of bundles of the protein myosin and also contain ATPase
enzymes
 Have heads (extensions of cross bridges)
 Myosin and actin overlap
• Skeletal muscle activity
○ Nerve stimulus and the action potential
 Stimulated by nerve impulse to contact
• One motor neuron may stimulate a few
muscle cells or hundreds of them,
depending on the particular muscle or
action
 Motor unit = one neuron and all the skeletal
muscle cells it stimulates
 Axon = nerve fiber
 Axon terminal
• Forms junctions (neuromuscular
junctions) with the sarcolemma of a
different cell
• The nerve endings and the muscle cell never touch
○ The gap between them is called the synaptic cleft
 When nerve impulses reach the axon terminals, a chemical
(neurotransmitter) is released
• Acetylcholine (ACh) = the specific neurotransmitter that stimulates
skeletal muscle cells
○ Diffuses across the synaptic cleft and attaches to the receptors
(membrane proteins)
 Stimulation of muscle cells
• Step 1: release of acetylcholine
○ Vesicles in the synaptic terminal release their contents into the
synaptic cleft
• Step 2: Ach binding at the motor end plate
○ The binding of ACh to the receptors changes the membrane
permeability and induces an action potential in the sarcolemma
• Step 3: action potential conduction by the sarcolemma
○ The action potential spreads across the membrane surface and
travels down the transverse tubules, triggering the release of
calcium ions at the cistemae. While this occurs, AChE removes
the acetylcholine from the synaptic cleft
 Contraction of muscle
• (1) Ach is released, binding to receptors
• (2) Action potential reaches T tubule
• (3) Sarcoplasmic reticulum releases Ca+
• (4) Active-site exposure, cross-bridge binding
• (5) Contraction begins
• (6) Ach removed by AChE
• (7) Sarcoplasmic reticulum recaptures Ca
 • (8) Active sites covered, no cross-bridge interaction
• (9) Contraction ends
• (10) Relaxation occurs, passive return to resting length
• Providing energy for muscle contraction – as a muscle contracts, the bonds of ATP
molecules are hydrolyzed to release the needed energy. ATP is the only energy source
that can be used directly to power muscle activity, and it must be continuouisly be
regenerated if contraction is to continue
○ Three ways ATP is produced
 Direct phosphorylation of ATP by creatine phosphate –
• Direct phosphorylation
○ Muscle cells contain creatine phosphate (CP)
 CP is a high-energy molecule
○ After ATP is depleted, ADP is left
○ CP transfers energy to ADP, to regenerate ATP
○ CP supplies are exhausted in about 20 seconds
 Aerobic respiration –
• Series of metabolic pathways that occur in the mitochondria
• Glucose is broken down to carbon dioxide and water, releasing energy
• This is a slower reaction that requires continuous oxygen
 Anaerobic glycolysis and lactic acid formation –
• Reaction that breaks down glucose without oxygen
• Glucose is broken down to pyruvic acid to produce some ATP
• Pyruvic acid is converted to lactic acid
• This reaction is not as efficient, but is fast
○ Huge amounts of glucose are needed
○ Lactic acid produces muscle fatigue
• Types of body
movements
○ Flexion
○ Extension
○ Rotation
○ Abduction
○ Adduction
○ Circumduction
 ○ Special movements
 Dorsiflexion (up) and plantar flexion (down)
• up and down movements of your foot
 inversion (turn sole medially) and eversion (turn sole laterally)
 supination (“turning backward”, ulna and radius are parallel) and pronation
(radius across the ulna, forming an X)
 opposition (pinching you thumb and index finger together; opposable
thumbs)
• interactions of the skeletal muscles in the body
○ muscles can’t push, they can only pull as they contract, most body movements are
the result of two or more muscles acting against each other or together
○ prime mover
 muscle that has the major responsibility for causing a particular movement
○ antagonist
 muscles that oppose or reverse a movement
 can also be prime movers in their own right (ex: biceps of the arm is
antagonized by the triceps)
○ synergists (syn = together, erg = work)
 help prime movers by producing the same movement or by reducing
undesirable movements
○ fixators
 specialized synergists that hold a bone still or stabilize the origin of a prime
mover so all the tension can be used to move the insertion bone
• naming skeletal muscles
○ direction of muscle fibers – some muscles are named in reference to some
imaginary line, usually the midline of the body
 ex: rectus (straight); fibers run parallel to an imaginary line
• rectus femoris (rectus describes the direction, femoris describes the
location of the muscle, which is on the femur)
○ relative size of the muscle
 maximus = largest
 minimus = smallest
 longus = long
 magnus = large
○ location of the muscle – some muscles are named for the bone which they are
associated
 ex: temporalis and frontalis overlie the temporal and frontal bones of the
skull
○ number of origins
 ex: biceps, triceps, quadriceps (bi=2, tri=3, quad=4)
○ location of the muscles origin
 ex : sternocleidomastoid has its origin on the sternum (sterno) and clavicle
(cleido)
○ shape of the muscle
 ex: deltoid = triangular
○ action of the muscle
 extensor, flexor, and adductor
• Anterior muscles

ume of an organ as it
contractscle, serving to attatch it to the boneappearance
• Posterior muscles