Muscles machines of the body Muscle make up nearly half the body s mass.

The essential function of muscle is contraction or shortening. This unique characteristic sets muscle apart from other tissues in the body. All body movements depend on the muscles. Thus, muscles can be viewed as the machines of the body. Functions of the muscles 1. Produces movement. All movements of the human body are result of muscular contraction. 2. Maintaining posture. The skeletal muscles in the body maintain posture. 3. Stabilizing joints. Presence of muscle tendons reinforces and stabilizes joints that have poorly fitting articulating surfaces. 4. Generating heat. Heat is a by-product of muscle activity. This heat is essential in maintaining normal body temperature. Types of muscles 1. Skeletal muscles Also called: voluntary muscle, striated muscle This type of muscle attaches to the body s skeleton. Because of their attachment to the bony part of the body smoother contours of the body are formed. Skeletal muscle fibers are cigarshaped, multi-nucleate cells and are the largest of the muscle fiber types. This is the only muscle type that can be controlled consciously, thus it is a voluntary muscle. Since its fibers appear to be striped it is known as striated muscle 2. Smooth Muscles Also called: visceral muscles, non-striated muscles, involuntary muscles Smooth muscles, unlike skeletal muscles, have no striations. It is controlled involuntarily, meaning to say individuals cannot consciously regulate it. If skeletal muscles are found in the bones, smooth muscles are found on the walls of hollow visceral organs such as the stomach, urinary bladder and respiratory passages. The main function of smooth muscles is to propel substances along a definite tract or pathway within the body. These muscles have only one nucleus and are spindle-shaped.

A single skeletal muscle, such as the triceps muscle, is attached at its

origin to a large area of bone; in this case, the humerus. At its other end, the insertion, it tapers into a glistening white tendon which, in this case, is attached to the ulna, one of the bones of the lower arm.

As the triceps contracts, the insertion is pulled toward the origin and the arm is straightened or extended at the elbow. Thus the triceps is an extensor. Because skeletal muscle exerts force only when it contracts, a second muscle a flexor is needed to flex or bend the joint. The biceps muscle is the flexor of the lower arm. Together, the biceps and triceps make up an antagonistic pair of muscles. Similar pairs, working antagonistically across other joints, provide for almost all the movement of the skeleton.

The Muscle Fiber Skeletal muscle is made up of thousands of cylindrical muscle fibers often running all the way from origin to insertion. The fibers are bound together by connective tissue through which run blood vessels and nerves. Each muscle fibers contains:
y y y y

an array of myofibrils that are stacked lengthwise and run the entire length of the fiber; mitochondria; an extensive smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER); many nuclei (thus each skeletal muscle fiber is a syncytium).

The multiple nuclei arise from the fact that each muscle fiber develops from the fusion of many cells (called myoblasts). The number of fibers is probably fixed early in life. This is regulated by myostatin, a cytokine that is synthesized in muscle cells (and circulates as a hormone later in life). Myostatin suppresses skeletal muscle development. (Cytokines secreted by a cell type that inhibit proliferation of that same type of cell are called chalones.) Cattle and mice with inactivating mutations in their myostatin genes develop much larger muscles. Some athletes and other remarkably strong people have been found to carry one mutant myostatin gene. These discoveries have already led to the growth of an illicit market in drugs supposedly able to suppress myostatin. In adults, increased muscle mass comes about through an increase in the thickness of the individual fibers and increase in the amount of connective tissue. In the mouse, at least, fibers increase in size by attracting more myoblasts to fuse with them. The fibers attract more myoblasts by releasing the cytokine interleukin 4 (IL-4). Anything that lowers the level of myostatin also leads to an increase in fiber size. Because a muscle fiber is not a single cell, its parts are often given special names such as
y y y y

sarcolemma for plasma membrane sarcoplasmic reticulum for endoplasmic reticulum sarcosomes for mitochondria sarcoplasm for cytoplasm

although this tends to obscure the essential similarity in structure and function of these structures and those found in other cells. The nuclei and mitochondria are located just beneath the plasma membrane. The endoplasmic reticulum extends between the myofibrils.

Seen from the side under the microscope, skeletal muscle fibers show a pattern of cross banding, which gives rise to the other name: striated muscle. The striated appearance of the muscle fiber is created by a pattern of alternating
y y y y

dark A bands and light I bands. The A bands are bisected by the H zone running through the center of which is the M line. The I bands are bisected by the Z disk.

Each myofibril is made up of arrays of parallel filaments.

The thick filaments have a diameter of about 15 nm. They are composed of the protein myosin. The thin filaments have a diameter of about 5 nm. They are composed chiefly of the protein actin along with smaller amounts of two other proteins: o troponin and o tropomyosin.

Muscles Control

In this respect, skeletal muscle differs from smooth and cardiac muscle. Both cardiac and smooth muscle can contract without being stimulated by the nervous system. Nerves of theautonomic branch of the nervous system lead to both smooth and cardiac muscle, but their effect is one of moderating the rate and/or strength of contraction.

The Neuromuscular Junction Nerve impulses (action potentials) traveling down the motor neurons of the sensory-somatic branch of the nervous system cause the skeletal muscle fibers at which they terminate to contract. The junction between the terminal of a motor neuron and a muscle fiber is called the neuromuscular junction. It is simply one kind of synapse. (The neuromuscular junction is also called the myoneural junction.) The terminals of motor axons contain thousands of vesicles filled with acetylcholine (ACh). Many of these can be seen in the electron micrograph on the left (courtesy of Prof. B. Katz). When an action potential reaches the axon terminal, hundreds of these vesicles discharge their ACh onto a specialized area of postsynaptic membrane on the muscle fiber (the folded membrane running diagonally upward from the lower left). This area contains a cluster of transmembrane channels that are opened by ACh and let sodium ions (Na+) diffuse in. The interior of a resting muscle fiber has a resting potential of about 95 mV. The influx of sodium ions reduces the charge, creating an end plate potential. If the end plate potential reaches the threshold voltage (approximately 50 mV), sodium ions flow in with a rush and an action potential is created in the fiber. The action potential sweeps down the length of the fiber just as it does in an axon. No visible change occurs in the muscle fiber during (and immediately following) the action potential. This period, called the latent period, lasts from 3 10 msec.

Before the latent period is over,

the enzyme acetylcholinesterase o breaks down the ACh in the neuromuscular junction (at a speed of 25,000 molecules per second) o the sodium channels close, and o the field is cleared for the arrival of another nerve impulse. the resting potential of the fiber is restored by an outflow of potassium ions.

The brief (1 2 msec) period needed to restore the resting potential is called the refractory period.

Neuromuscular Transmission Pre-synaptic events

An AP propagates down the axon invades and depolarizes the presynaptic terminal region

Ca2+ flows into the boutons through voltage-activated Ca2+ channels

Fusion of synaptic vesicles with pre-synaptic membrane & the release of "packets" or quanta of transmitter into the cleft.

Neuromuscular Transmission Post-synaptic events

ACh diffuses across the cleft. This takes time (up to several hundred microsec).

ACh binds to Nicotinic ACh receptors in the post-synaptic membrane, opening monovalent cation channels

Channel opening depolarizes the post-synaptic membrane, creating an endplate potential (EPP).

If EPPs exceeds a threshold value