Chapter 4.

Muscle:
Mechanims of
contraction
 Overview of muscular tissue
 Skeletal muscle
 Smooth muscle

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Muscular tissue: consisting of muscle fibers

Functions:
Producing body movement
Stabilizing body positions
Storing andmoving substances within the body
Generating heat

Properties
Electrical excitability
Contractility
Extensibility
Elasticity

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Skeletal muscle
- Joined to bones and tendoms
- Long striated fibers, cilindrical, multi-
nucleated
- Voluntary control
- movement, posture, heat,

Cardiac muscle
- Heart walls
- Striated and ramified fibers, 1 or 2 nuclei,
intercalated discs
- Involuntary control
- Blood pumping
Smooth muscle
- Iris, blood vessel walls, respiratory tract,
gastrointestinal tract, gallbladder, urinary
bladder
- Fusiform fibers, non-striated, one nucleus
- Involuntary control
- Connstricts blood vessels and airways, movility
of food through the tract, contraction of
bladder and gallbladder 4
 Vocabulary

General term Muscle term

Muscle cells Muscle fiber/Myocyte

Cell membrane Sarcolemma

Cytoplasm Sarcoplasm

Endoplasmic reticulum Sarcoplasmic reticulum

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 Overview of muscular tissue
 Skeletal muscle
 Smooth muscle

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 Skeletal muscle
• Striated muscle tissue surrounded
by a sheath of connective tissue that
joins it to the bone (tendons)

• Muscle divides smaller tubes

called fascicles

•Fascicles are made of fibers

(muscle cells), which contain the
myofibrils

•Myofibrils are composed of long

proteins, including actin and
myosin (myofilaments)

• The sarcomere is the functional

unit of the skeletal muscle
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• Myofilaments
•Think: miosin
•Thin: actin
•Sarcomere: Contraction basic functional unit
•A band: A-band contains the entire length of a single thick
filament
•I band: thin filaments that arenot superimposed by thick filaments
•H-zone: thick filaments that are not superimposed by the thin
filaments.
•Z-discs: Line
separating two
sarcomeres
•M line: center of the
sarcomere

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Sarcomere

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 Thick filaments

• Composed of numerous myosin units (more than 200)

• Each filament presents a tail (myosin heavy chain)and a
head (myosin light chain).
•Myosin head has ATPase activity and can bind to the actin

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 Thin Filaments
•Anchored to the Z-discs
•Main component is an helix of actin
•Each actin molecule contains a myosin-binding site
•There are smaller amounts of two regulatory proteins: tropomyosin and troponin
• In relaxed muscled cells, strands of tropomyosin are covering the binding sites in the
actin. It blocks the actin-myosin union
• Troponin is attached to tropomyosin and presents great affinity for actin,
tropomyosin , and calcium

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 Sliding filament mechanism

• Lenght of filaments does

not change
•Myosin heads pull the thin
filaments toward the M line
• Z-discs come closer
together
• I-bands decrease their
lenght
• Shortening of the
sarcomeres causes
shortening of the whole
muscle fiber 14
Sliding filament mechanism
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The Contraction Cycle

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 Ca2+ release
• Increase of Ca2+ concentration in the cytosol starts the contraction
•Ca2+ is stored inside the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR)
•The action potential open Ca2+ channels in the SR
•After contraction, SERCA pumps move back the Ca2+ to the DR

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 Neuromuscular junction
• Skeletal muscle is stimulated by somatic motor neurons
•Neuromuscular junction is the synapse between a somatic
motor neuron and a skeletal muscle fiber
• Motor end plate: muscle fibers stimulated by a single
somatic motor neuron
•NT: Ach
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Muscle contraction

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 Overview of muscular tissue
 Skeletal muscle
 Smooth muscle

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 Smooth muscle fibers
•Filaments are not distributed in
sarcomeres
•Intermediate filaments and
dense bodies are present
• Thin filaments bind to dense
bodies
•Calcium in the SR (fewer) and in
ECF
•Calcium binds to calmodulin
•Calmodulin activates myosin
•Myosin binds to actin
•Contraction is produced
 Types of action potentials in smooth muscle

•RMP: -50 to -60 mV

•There are more voltaje-dependent
channels for Ca2+ than in skeletal
muscle fibers
•Spike potentials: generated by
NT, hormones or streching (e.g:
smooth fibers in blood vessels).
•Slow waves: repetitive spike
potentials (e.g.: digestive track)
•With plateau (e.g. myometrium)

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