Professional Documents
Culture Documents
T1 L8 Cardiac Muscle
T1 L8 Cardiac Muscle
(HALIMA)
Striated involuntary muscle with bundles of actin and myosin protein microfilaments
One central nucleus (occasionally up to 5)
Endomysium only
Branching network of cells interconnected at intercalated discs
Intercalated discs contain desmosomes and gap junctions
Desmosomes bind cardiac cells tightly together → cardiac muscle cells contract as a unit
The gap junctions allow ions and small molecules to move from one cell to another → coordinated contraction
Cardiac tissue has the property of automaticity - able to generate its own action potentials
• The autonomic nervous system simply modulates the rate at which the heart beats
• AP is generated in nodal tissue (the SA node)
• AP is transmitted to the ventricles via the conduction network and from cell to cell via gap
junctions
• The AP travels along the muscle fibre membrane
• Ca2+ enters sarcoplasm from SR and from the extracellular fluid via voltage-gated channels =
calcium-induced calcium release (electrical depolarisation of the sarcolemma, results in an influx of
calcium into the cell through channels in the T tubules.)
• Ca2+ triggers contraction by the sliding filament mechanism
• Myosin heads are “cocked” (energised) by hydrolysis of an ATP molecule attached to the head (→ADP + Pi)
• Ca2+ released from SR binds to troponin, which alters its conformation and pulls tropomyosin away from binding sites for
myosin on actin
• Myosin heads form a crossbridge to the actin
• Release of Pi → heads bend (power stroke) and slide the actin over the myosin→ sarcomeres shorten→ contraction
• ADP released and attachment of another ATP to myosin head dissociates myosin from actin
• Myosin heads progressively attach to actin and detach, maintaining contraction
Relevance to case
References
CV Physiology