3c. Muscle 22893
3c. Muscle 22893
3c. Muscle 22893
Muscle:
• Muscle – a Latin word for “little mouse”
• Muscle is the primary tissue in the
o Heart (cardiac MT)
o Walls of hollow organs (Smooth MT)
• Skeletal muscle
Makes up nearly half the body’s mass
Prime movers – provide the major force for producing a specific movement
Antagonists – oppose or reverse a particular movement
Synergists
- Add force to a movement
- Reduce undesirable or unnecessary movement
Fixators – synergists that immobilize a bone or muscle’s origin
Muscle and Muscle Tissues Page |2
MARTINI
PG 133
Muscle Similarities
• Skeletal and smooth muscle cells are elongated and are called muscle fibers
• Muscle contraction depends on two kinds of myofilaments – actin and myosin
• Muscle terminology is similar
o Sarcolemma – muscle plasma membrane
o Sarcoplasm – cytoplasm of a muscle cell
o Prefixes – myo, mys, and sarco all refer to muscle
Muscle and Muscle Tissues Page |3
Muscle Function
Skeletal muscles are responsible for all locomotion
Cardiac muscle is responsible for coursing the blood through the body
Smooth muscle helps maintain blood pressure, and squeezes or propels substances (i.e., food, feces)
through organs
Muscles also maintain posture, stabilize joints, and generate heat
Skeletal Muscle
• Voluntarily controlled (consciously)
• Form the flesh of the body
• When the skeletal muscles contract, they pull on bones or skin
Sarcomere Structure:
• A bands – full length of the thick filament
o Includes inner end of thin filaments
• I band – region with only thin filaments
Lies within two adjacent sarcomeres
• H zone – center part of A band where no thin filaments occur
• M line – in center of H zone
o Contains tiny rods that hold thick filaments together
Mechanism of Contraction:
• Sliding filament theory
o Myosin heads attach to actin in the thin filaments
o Then pivot to pull thin filaments inward toward the center of the sarcomere
Cardiac Muscle
Cardiac Muscle:
Cardiac muscle has striations, but are uninucleate, relatively short, branching cells that fit
tightly together at intercalated junctions.