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Properties of Muscles

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26 views

Properties of Muscles

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celecosib
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PROPERTIES OF Dr Noor Kamil

MUSCLE TISSUE
PROPERTIES OF MUSCLE
TISSUE
Excitability
 the ability to respond to stimulation.

Contractility
 the ability to shorten actively and exert tension.

Extensibility
 the ability to contract after being stretched to various initial lengths.

Elasticity
 the ability to regain its initial length after contraction.
1. EXCITABILITY
 The ability to receive and respond to a stimulus
 In skeletal muscle, the stimulus is a neurotransmitter (chemical signal) release by a neuron
(nerve cell).
 In smooth muscle, the stimulus could be a neurotransmitter, a hormone, stretch, ∆pH, ∆Pco2 , or
∆Po2 (the symbol ∆ means “a change in”).
 In cardiac muscle, the stimulus could be a neurotransmitter, a hormone, or stretch.
 The response is the generation of an electrical impulse that travels along the plasma membrane of the muscle cell.
 For a muscle to contract and do work, its cells must be stimulated, most often by the nerves supplying them.

 Nervous impulses cause the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine at the nerve-muscle
junction, and the acetylcholine activates receptors on the surface of the muscle cell.
 This results in an influx of positively charged sodium ions into the muscle cell and a
depolarization of the muscle cell membrane, which in the resting state is quite negatively
charged.
 If the membrane becomes sufficiently depolarized, an action potential results; the muscle cell is
then "excited" from an electrochemical standpoint.
It is the change in potential and the consequent responses inherent to the tissues, in
response to a stimulus.
Stimulus: It is the change in the external environment bringing about excitation in an
excitable tissue.
TYPES OF STIMULUS
 Electrical-commonly used in labs
 Mechanical
 Thermal
 Chemical
 Electro-magnetic

QUALITY OF STIMULUS
• Strength of stimulus: Sub minimal, Minimal (threshold), Submaximal, Maximal
and Supramaximal
•Duration of stimulus
STRENGTH-DURATION
CURVE
The relation between the strength and the
duration of a threshold stimulus is called the
strength–duration curve
Rheobase: the minimum strength of the current acting on
the muscle for a variable period that can bring about a
response.
Utilization time: the minimum duration for which a
current of rheobase strength is applied to excite an
excitable tissue
Chronaxie: is defined as the shortest duration of stimulus
required to excite a tissue by a current strength equal to
twice of rheobase voltage.
Chronaxie of a tissue is a definite measure of its
excitability.
2. CONTRACTILITY
Ability to shorten and thicken (when muscles work they contract that is they get shorter
and thicker)
In the case of skeletal muscles, muscle cells contract when stimulated by neural input;
smooth and cardiac muscles do not require this input.
When a muscle cell is excited, the impulse travels along various membranes of the cell to
its interior, where it leads to the opening of calcium channels.
Calcium ions flow toward and bind to a protein molecule called troponin, leading to
sequential changes in shape and position of the associated proteins tropomyosin, myosin
and actin.
The upshot is that myosin binds to small strands within the cell called myofilaments and
pulls them along, causing the cell to shorten, or contract.
Since this is going on simultaneously and in a coordinated fashion in many thousands of
myocytes at the same time, the muscle as a whole contracts.
Muscle-twitch (simple muscle curve)
The contraction and relaxation of skeletal
muscle in response to a single adequate
stimulus

All or None response


An individual muscle fiber exhibits
contraction of an uniform intensity once
their particular threshold has been reached
PHASES
The time between when a muscle is stimulated and any actual sarcomere shortening is
called the latent period.
During this short interval of time it seems as if nothing is happening. In fact the cell is
very active releasing calcium, having it bind to troponin which moves tropomyosin
allowing the myosin to bind. Remember these events precede any physical shortening of
the sarcomeres.
Then the cell goes through the contraction phase where myosin is pulling on the actin
causing the sarcomeres to shorten. At some point the Calcium ATPase pump activated and
begins to remove the calcium from the sarcoplasm and return it to the sarcoplasmic
reticulum. This happens during the relaxation phase.
Notice the relaxation phase is longer than the contraction phase. This difference deals
with the way in which the cell releases calcium compare to how the calcium is removed.
Facilitated diffusion is faster than active transport.
Internal events of the muscle which are manifested by shortening or
development of tension or both.
Types of contraction
1. Isotonic contraction
Tension remains the same, while the muscle's length changes
Concentric contractions cause the muscle to shorten as it contracts
Eccentric contraction opposite of concentric and occur when the
muscle lengthens as it contracts.
2. Isometric contraction
Muscle does not change its length
3. EXTENSIBILITY
Ability to stretch (when muscle is relaxed it becomes longer and thinner)
some muscles work while others relax
Extensibility
Most of body's cells lack the capacity to stretch; attempting can damages or
destroys.
Muscle cells contract, and in order for them to retain this ability, they must
accordingly possess extensibility, or the capacity to lengthen. Muscle cells
can be stretched to about three times their contracted length without
rupturing.
This is important because in a lot of coordinated movements, muscles
operate such that one is lengthening while the other is contracting.
 For example, during running, the hamstring in the back of thigh contracts
while quadriceps are extended conversely.
4. ELASTICITY
Ability to return to original length
When something is described as elastic, this is simply it can be stretched or
contracted by some amount above or below its resting or default length without
damaging it, and that it will return to this resting length once the stimulus for
stretching or contraction is removed.
Muscles require the property of elastic recoil to perform any function.
Muscle-tendon Elasticity Complex
The natural ability of your musculoskeletal system to 'return to its original state'.
When the limb of body is moved in any way in any direction for any
purpose, muscles and tendons accommodate by elongating or shortening at various
key spots.
RELATED TERMS
Irritability ~ ability to respond to stimulus
Tone ~ slight tension in the muscles at all times, even at rest
Fatigue ~ Muscle fatigue is the decline in ability of a muscle to generate force
Tetany ~ is a condition where the stimuli come so fast that muscle cannot relax, it
stays contracted. The moment any calcium is removed from the sarcoplasm another
stimulation causes it's release. This is essentially what happens in a muscle cramp
which is a sudden and involuntary contraction of one or more muscles.
Muscle spasm is an involuntary contraction of a muscle that can cause a great deal of pain.
Tetany is different from tetanus which is a disease caused by a bacterial toxin that
interferes with motor neuron function resulting in uncontrolled stimulation.
Routinely vaccination can prevent tetanus.

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