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ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA IN SKELETAL MUSCLE

- RESTING MEMBRANE POTENTIAL OF A MUSCLE CELL IS ABOUT -90mV
- Action potentials are conducted along the muscle fiber at about 5 metres per second
- After-polarization is relatively prolonged

INSIDE THE MUSCLE CELL: concentrations in mmol/L

- 12mmol Na+
- 155 mmol K+
- 3.8 mmol Cl-
- 8 mmol HCO3-
- 155 mmol organic anions, i.e. phosphates and proteins

IN THE ECF:
- 145 mmol Na+
- 4 mmol K+
- 120 mmol Cl-
- 27 mmol HCO3-
- 0 mmol anionic proteins

THE EQUILIBRIUM POTENTIALS:

- Na+ +65 mV
- K+ -95 mV
- Cl- -90mV
- HCO3- - 32 mV

CONTRACTILITY IN SKELETAL MUSCLE

- A “muscle twitch” is a single action potential which causes a single contraction
- The twitch happens about 2 ms after the start of membrane depolarization
- FAST muscle fibers have a twitch duration as fast as 7.5 milliseconds
- SLOW muscle fibers have a twitch duration about 100ms

- The contraction itself is caused by the thick and thin filaments sliding over each other
- The width of the A bands is constant; Z-lines move closer together

MECHANISM OF CONTRACTION
- At rest, tropinin I covers the site where actin and myosin interact.
- At rest, the myosin heads is tightly bound to ADP
When the muscle membrane depolarizes, there is suddenly tons of Ca++ in the cytosol:
- the Ca++ binds to Troponin C
- this weakens the bond between troponin-I and actin; releasing the actin binding site
- The myosin head and the actin binding site form a cross-bridge
- When the cross-bridge is formed, ADP is released from the myosin head
- THE RELEASE OF ADP CAUSES A CONFORMATIONL CHANGE IN THE MYOSIN HEAD:
The head moves, pulling the actin filament. This is the “power stroke”.
- ATP quickly binds to the myosin head and this causes it to release the actin filament; the cross-bridge is broken
- The myosin head quickly hydrolyses the ATP into ADP; this causes the head to return to normal shape, ready to
stroke again.
- As long as there is enough calcium and enough\ ATP, the cycle continues
- Each power stroke shortens the sarcomere by about 10 nm
- Each thick filament has about 500 myosin heads, and each head cycles about 5 times per second
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