Musculoskeletal
Musculoskeletal
Musculoskeletal
Objective
Be able to describe the relevant cellular structures involved in muscle contraction and the events that occur at the cellular level during the production of force by filament interaction
Control of Contraction
1. Motor neuron control Every muscle cell is contacted by a motor nerve axon or a branch of a motor nerve axon. Action pot. In axon release of Ach from axon terminal stimulation of muscle fiber.
2. Muscle action potential invades SR The membrane of the muscle fiber is electrically excitable just like a nerve cell axon. Ach causes the muscle fiber to depolarize and this triggers an all-or-none MAP which is conducted along the full length of the muscle fiber and which invades the membranes of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. 3. Calcium released into cytoplasm, Complexes with troponin tropomyosin changes shape 4. Tropomyosin moves, uncovers binding site on actin cross-bridges form, filaments slide 5. Calcium removed fiber relaxes The SR membrane has an active pump that pulls Ca back into the chambers of the SR. This lowers the intracellular Ca ion concentration, troponin again binds tightly to tropomysin, tropomyosin again covers binding sites on actin filaments. Cross bridges can no longer form and muscle relaxes (sarcomeres return to rest length)
This figure corresponds to point C on the graph. The muscle is stretched to a point where there is very little overlap between actin and myosin. The isometric tension will be low.
At point B on the graph there is considerable overlap between actin and myosin. There are many active cross bridges, so the isometric tension will be high.
At point A there is a lot of overlap between actin and myosin, but the actin filaments are pushing on each other. This distorts the filaments, weakening the cross bridges.
How rapidly the nervous system is stimulating them; motor unit= single motor neuron and all the muscle fibers (cells) that it forms junctions with. Recruitment of more motor units results in greater tension development).
Fatigue
Maintained tetanic contraction leads to eventual decline in tension = fatigue. Some muscles fatigue rapidly, but also recover rapidly. Other muscles fatigue more slowly, but take much longer to recover. Regular exercise can make muscles more resistant to fatigue by increasing blood supply and number of mitochondria
Muscle Contraction
1. Stimulation causes release of Ca2+ from Sarcoplasmic Reticulum (muscle ER) 2. Ca2+ binds to troponin ( C subunit) 3. Structural change in troponin removes tropomyosin from actin-myosin binding site 4. Myosin head contacts actin molecule 5. Myosin ATPase splits ATP providing energy for rowing backward motion of myosin head 6. Another ATP molecule becomes bound to myosin causing release, return of head to normal state, and reattachment to actin ( if Ca2+ present) 7. Repeat process until contraction attained
When the nerve fires the whole motor unit is stimulated and the muscle cells contract together Muscle with large motor units have coarse movements Muscle with small motor units give fine, graded movements
Order of events. Ach release muscle action potential Ca release contraction A simple twitch gives only 20-30% of the maximum tension possiblethe muscle starts to relax before the maximum is reached
Muscle Contraction Can Summate to Produce More Force If a second stimulus is given before a muscle relaxes the muscle will shorten further, building up more tension than a simple twitch- this is called summation If many stimuli are given very close together the muscle will go into a smooth continuous contraction called tetanus Another Way to Increase the Force of Contraction is to Recruit More Motor Units Each muscle is made up of tens of thousands of motor units Force generated by a muscle can be increased by firing more and more motor units Different Types of Skeletal Muscle Fibers Specialize for Endurance or Speed Muscle cells (fibers) specialize for their type of activity Atheletes have fiber types that match their activities Endurance fibers (type I ) Have many mitochondria-the mitochondria give these fibers a red appearance because one of the mitochondrial enzymes contains Fe Also contain a red pigment called myoglobin which stores O2 Contract slowly but resist fatigue Fast twitch fibers (type II) Fibers specialized for fast contractions are white-they contain few mitochondria Relying on glycolysis to supply energy (glycolysis is faster than respiration) Contract rapidly but fatigue quickly Fiber type is mostly genetically determined, but some experiments have shown conversion of one fiber type into another