The Muscular System

Lesson 6
BSN 1
Objectives

• 1. Define muscular system.

• 2. Describe the microscopic structure of skeletal muscle and explain
the role of actin and myosin-containing myofilaments.
• 3. Describe the events of muscle contraction.
• 4. Describe three ways in which ATP is regenerated during muscle
activity.
• 5. Describe the effects of aerobic and resistance exercise on skeletal
muscle fatigue.
• 6. Define origin, prime mover, antagonist, synergist, and fixator as
they relate to muscles.
Muscular System

• provides for movement of the body and its parts, maintains posture,
generates heat and stabilized joints

• from Latin word, “mus” which means little mouse

• makes up nearly half the body mass

• essential function of muscle is contraction, shortening

Three basic muscle types in the body

• Skeletal muscle
• Cardiac muscle
• Smooth muscle
Skeletal muscle

• attached to muscle skeleton

• muscle cells are elongated
• (muscle cell = muscle fiber)
• contraction of muscles is due to the movement of microfilaments
• all muscles share some terminology
• Prefix myo refers to muscle
• Prefix mys refers to muscle
• Prefix sarco refers to flesh
Skeletal muscle

• most are attached by tendons

to bones
• cell are multinucleate
• striated – have visible banding
• voluntary – subject to
conscious control
• cells are surrounded and
bundled by connective tissue
Muscle fiber

• Endomysium
• each muscle fiber is
enclosed by delicate
connective sheath –
around a single
muscle fiber
• Perimysium
• around the fascicle
(bundle) of muscle
fibers
• coarser fibrous
membrane
Muscle fiber

• Epimysium
• covers the entire skeletal muscle
• Tougher “overcoat” connective
tissue

• Tendons – cordlike where

epimysia blend

• Aponeuroses sheetlike,:

• Attaches muscles indirectly to

• Site of attachments:
• Bones
• Cartilages
• connective tissue coverings
Muscle fiber

• Tendons
• tough collagenic
fibers
• can cross bony
structure

• Functions of
tendons:
• anchor muscles to
skeleton
• provide durability
and conserving
space
Smooth muscle

• has no striations • hollow visceral organs

• spindle-shaped cells • Stomach
• Urinary bladder
• single nucleus • Respiratory passages
• involuntary • Blood vessels
• found mainly in hollow organs
• propels substances along a
definite tract within the body
Cardiac muscle

• has striations
• usually has a
single nucleus
• joined to
another muscle
cell at an
intercalated disc
• involuntary
• only in the heart
Muscle function

• Produce movement
• Locomotion
• Maintaining posture
• Stabilizing joints
• Generating heat
• Maintaining temperature
Microscopic anatomy of skeletal muscle

• cells are multinucleate

• nuclei are beneath the
sarcolemma
• sarcolemma – specialized
plasma membrane
• sarcoplasmic reticulum –
specialized smooth ER
• major role is store calcium and
release “on demand”
Myofibrils
• bundles of myofilamanents

• aligned to give disctinct bands

• I band – light band
• With Z midline interrupted dark area
• A band – dark band
Myofibrils

• sarcomeres • ATpase – splits ATP to generate

• contractile unit of myrofibrils power
• myosin filaments have have
heads (extensions or cross
• Organization of sarcomere bridges)
• myosin and actin overlap
• Thick filaments = myosin somewhat
filaments

• composed of protein myosin

• has ATpase enzymes
Myofibrils

• Organization of the sarcomere

• Thin filaments = actin filaments

• composed of protein actin
• at rest, a bare zone that lacks
actin filaments
Stimulation and Contraction of skeletal
muscle
• Irritability
• ability to receive and respond to a stimulus

• Contractility
• ability to shorten when an adequate stimulus is received
Motor Neuron

• Skeletal muscles must be

stimulated by a nerve to
contract

• Motor unit

• one neuron
• muscles cells stimulated by that
neuron
• nerve fiber
Motor neuron

• Neuromuscular junctions

• association site of the nerve and

muscle

• Synaptic cleft
• gap between muscles and motor
neuron
• filled with interstitial fluid
• nerve and muscle do make
contact
Motor neuron at neuromuscular junction

• When the nerve impulse • Sarcollema becomes permeable

reaches the axon terminal to sodium (Na+)
• Motor neuron releases • Sodium rushing into the cell
neurotransmitter generates an action potentioal
• Acetylcholine –Ach • Once started, muscle
• the neurotransmitter for contraction cannot be stopped,
skeletal muscle it travels along the sarcolemma,
the electrical impulse travels
• Acetylcholine attaches to from end of the cell to other cell
receptors on the sarcollemma
Muscle contraction

• Resting phase of muscle

contraction

• 1.) diffusion of potassium ions

out of the cell

• 2.) the activation of the sodium-

potassium pump, the active
transport mechanism that
moves sodium and potassium
back to their initial position
Sliding Filament Theory

• Mechanism of muscle contraction

• activation by nerve causes myosin heads (crossbridges) to attach to
biding sites on the thin filaments
• Myosin heads then bind to the next site of the thin filament
• This continued actions causes a sliding of the myosin along the actin
• The result is that the muscle is shortened (contracted)
Contraction of a skeletal muscle as a Whole

• All or None Law – a muscle cell will contract to its fullest extent when
it is stimulated adequately

• Graded responses – different degrees of skeletal muscle shortening

• Graded muscle contraction
• (1) by changing the speed of muscle contraction
• (2) by changing the number of muscles being stimulated
Muscle Twitch / Twitch

• muscle response to increasingly rapid stimulation

• a single, brief, jerky contractions
• not a normal muscle functions
Tetanus

• Summing of contractions
• one contraction is immediately followed by another
• the muscles does not completely return to a resting state
• the effects are added
• produces stronger muscle contraction

• primary role is to produce smooth and prolonged muscle

contractions
Muscle response to stronger stimuli

• Strongest muscle contractions when:

• All motor units are active.
• All muscle cells are stimulated.
Energy provider for muscle contraction

• 1.) Direct Phosphorylation of

ADP by creatine phosphate

• As ATP is being depleted,

interactions between CP and
ADP results in transfers of a high
energy phosphate group from
CP to ADP, thus regenerating
more ATP in a fraction of a
second
Energy provider for muscle contraction

• 2.) Aerobic
respiration
• at rest, and during
light exercise
• metabolic pathways
that uses OXYGEN
• glucose is broken
down completely to
carbon dioxide and
oxygen
• Aerobic respiration:
1 Glucose molecule
produces 36 ATP
Energy provider for muscle contraction

• 3.) Anaerobic glycolysis and

lactic acid formation
• Glycolysis –
• 1st step
• no oxygen requirement
• occur in cytosol
• By-products to pyruvate
• 2 ATP per 1 glucose molecule
• Pyruvate converted to lactate
• 5 % produces ATP
• 21/2% faster to provide ATP in
30 to 40 secs of strenuous
muscle activity
• Muscle Soreness and muscle fatigue - shortcomings of anaerobic glycolysis, uses huge
amount of glucose for a small ATP harvest and accumulation of lactic acid
Muscle fatigue and Oxygen Debt

• Muscle fatigue • Oxygen debt

• unable to contract even
stimulated
• experience in prolong strenuous • Oxygen must be “repaid” to
exercises tissue
• Oxygen is required to get rid of
• Oxygen debt accumulated lactic acid
• main cause of muscle fatigue • Recovery phase – person breath
• occurs in prolong muscle activity rapidly and deeply

• Marathoners when they • Increasing acidity (from lactic

collapsed. acid) and lack of ATP causes the
muscle to contract less.
Types of muscle contraction

• Tension • Actions:
• develops in muscle contraction • bending the knee
• rotating arms
• as actin-myosin myofilamanents • smiling
interact within the muscle fibers
• 2.) Isometric contraction
• 1.) Isotonic contractions
• same tension or tone • same measurement or length
• myofilamanents are able to slide • tensions increases
to past each other during • muscle is unable to shorten
contraction
• muscle contracts and shortens
Muscle Tone

• result of different motor units, • state of continuous partial

scattered in our body, contractions
stimulated by our nervous
system
• Role:
• some muscle fibers are
contracted even in relaxed • muscle remains firm
muscle • healthy
• different fibers contract at • constantly ready for action
different times to provide
muscle tone
• the process of stimulating
various fibers is under
involuntary control
Muscle Tone

• Paralyzed

• no muscle tone
• motor nerve/ neuron damaged

• Flaccid
• Soft and flabby

• Atrophy
• Wasted away
Effects of Exercise on Muscle

• 1.) Aerobic or Endurance • Results of increase muscle use:

• jogging, biking, aerobic class • Increase muscle size

• result to stronger, more flexible • Increase muscle strength
muscles with great resistance to • Increase in muscle efficiency
fatigue • Muscle becomes more fatigue
resistant
• changes because of:
• blood supply to muscle cells
increase
• individual muscle cells from more
mitochondria
• store more oxygen
Resistance

• Isometric exercises • Benefit overall:

• muscles are pitted against
immovable object
• body builder do • More efficient body metabolism
• Improve digestion and
• Increase muscle size due to: elimination
• Enhances neuromuscular
• enlargment of individual muscle coordination
cell – result to increase number • Makes skeleton stronger
so of contractile filaments
• amount of connective increases • Heart enlarges (hypertrophy) –
that reinforces the muscle more blood pump – efficient in
increase gas exchange
Types of muscle based on muscle action

• 1.) Prime mover

• aka agonist
• major muscle responsible for a
particular movement

• 2.) Antagonists
• opposes the action of prime
mover
• (but it can also prime mover)
Types of muscle based on muscle action

• 3.) Synergists
• help prime movers by producing
the same movement or by
reducing undesirable or
unnecessary movements

• 4.) Fixators
• they hold or stabilize the origin of
a prime mover so all the tension
can be used to move the insertion
bone
Muscle Movements
Nomenclature Muscle

• 1.) Direction of the muscle

fibers

• U\usually named in reference to

body imaginary line

• Rectus –
• straight
• Rectus abdominis

• Oblique
• muscles fibers slanted to the
imaginary line
Nomenclature Muscle

• 2.) Relative size of the muscle

• Muscle group that serve common function

• Maximus – largest
• Minimus – smallest
• Longus - long
Nomenclature Muscle

• 3.) Location of the muscle

• muscle are named where the

bones are attach

• Frontalis muscles - attached to

frontal bone
Nomenclature muscle

• 4.) Number of origins

• the prefix of the muscle can tell

you the number of origins

• Biceps brachii – 2 origins

• Triceps brachii – 3 origins
Nomenclature muscle

• 5.) Location of the muscle origin

and insertion

• muscles named after their origins

and end (insertion)

• Sterno – origin is sternum and

clavicle
• Cleido – insertion is mastoid
process of temporal bone
Nomenclature muscle

• 6.) Shape of the muscle

• based on the shape of muscle

• Deltoid –
• from Greek word delta –
triangular
• triangle in shape
Nomenclature muscle

• 7. )Action of the muscle

• based on their action

• Flexor muscles
• Extensor muscles
• Adductor muscles
Muscle Origin Insertion Action Nerve
innervation

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