Muscle physiology

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Types of muscles

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 Skeletal muscle

= striated muscle

Pattern stems from highly

organized sarcomeres

Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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Nervous control

− Alpha-motor neuron in ventral

horn of spinal cord

− Fast nerve fiber (60-90 m/s)

connect to muscle via a synapse
=Neuromuscular junction

− One motor neuron supplies

multiple (6-1500) muscle fibers
(both togehter: „Motor unit“)

− One muscle cell gets only one

motor endplate

aus: Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

Muskeln und Reflexe

Zentrum für Physiologie und
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Motor endplate

ACh in

aus: Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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Sarcomere

FunFact:
Largest protein

aus: Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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 Sliding filament theory

Alberts et al.; Essential Cell Biology

Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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Sarcomere length vs. active and passive force

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 REST
Binding sites for myosin
become accessible due
to Ca2+-dependent shift

Position of
Myosin-head

ACTIVATION

cross section

© S. Galler, Salzburg 11
 Sliding filament theory proposed actin-myosin interaction
Andrew F. Huxley and Hugh Huxley

https://youtu.be/v71ZP8_RoOU

?! questioned by e.g. [Kitamura et al. 2005. Mechanism of muscle contraction based on stochastic
properties of single actomyosin motors observed in vitro. Biophysics 1, 1-19]. due to multiple cycles per ATP

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Ablauf der Kontraktion

Aus: Kandel, Principles of Neural Science 5th edition

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Tetanic contraction

Klinke & Silbernagl

„Lehrbuch der Physiologie“)

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Muscle force as a function of [calcium]i

Calmodulin 0,048 0

100

glatte Muskulatur

Herzmuskulatur
Kraft in %
50

Skelett-
muskulatur
0

10-8 10-7 10-6 10-5

Calciumkonzentration (mol/l)

Klinke & Silbernagl

„Lehrbuch der Physiologie“)

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What is the source of calcium?

The majority of
calcium comes from
intracellular stores,
the fraction depends
on the muscle type

Guyton & Hall;

Textbook of Medical Physiology

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 What is the source of calcium??

CaV1.1
old:

The majority of calcium comes from intracellular,

stored in the sacroplasmatic reticulum intracellular Relaxation:
stores, the fraction depends on the muscle type 1. End of depolarisation
2. Ca-reuptake by SERCA using ATP
3. Inhibition der Myosin–Actin interaction
Guyton & Hall
Textbook of Medical Physiology

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Store-Operated Calcium Entry (SOCE)

STIM1 senses
[calcium] in the
endoplasmic
Ca2+
reticulum
ORAI interacts with
STIM, and can
admits calcium from
extracellular

Loss-of-fuction: Hypotonie
Gain-of-function: Myopathy

Lilliu et al., 2021

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 Types of contraction

Conceptual, most real

Guyton & Hall;
Textbook of Medical Physiology contractions are between

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Characteristics of the muscle fibre types

• Separation in three types is a concept for classification!

• Training-induced fiber type change to slow is more efficient than to fast types Karp 2004

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Response to stimulation frequency

Aus: Kandel, Principles of Neural Science 5th edition

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Mutations controlling muscle mass and type

‚Mighty mouse‘ ‘Marathon mouse’

Myostatin knockout lacks PPAR-delta-overexpression
muscle controlling growth leads to more slow fibers

McPherron et al. 1977 Wang et al. 2004

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Metabolism at different activity levels

Martini FH. Anatomy & Physiology. 2004

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Muscle fatigue
activity over long period:
Individual fibres reduce
force, mechanisms are
depicted
intially conmpensated by
- activation frequency 
- recruiting other fibers
(including larger ones)

Allen et al. 2008.

Physiol. Reviews

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Muscle soreness

+growth factors

‚Laktate‘-theory is outdated Heiss et al. 2019

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Excerise-induce muscle cramps
Painful, sudden, involuntary but self-limiting contractions

Dijkstra et al. 2023

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Heart muscle

• also striated,
• spontaneous activation
(no motoneuron)
• Shows no fatigue

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Heart – vegetative control

Gordan 2015

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 Sympathetic increase in contraction force

Schmidt, Lang, Heckmann; Physiologie des Menschen

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 Ca2+ sources in the heart muscle

Ca2+ is release from

the SR through
„Calcium-induced CaV1.2
calcium release“
(not directly coupled)

Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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 Electrical activity of the heart

Freissmuth, Offermanns, Böhm;

Pharmakologie und Toxikologie

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 Ion conductance during an action potential

Neuron Heart

Guyton & Hall;

Textbook of Medical Physiology

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Smooth muscle

Sets diameter or tension of blood

vessels, gut, lung, bladder, gall
bladder

Regulation by autonomous
nervous system coupling by
gap junctions
(sympathic, parasympathic)

aus: Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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Smooth muscle architecture

‚Dense bands‘ and ‚dense bodies‘of a-Actinin anchor

the filaments to each other and the cell membrane

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(different) Mechanism of contraction

1. Ca2+ influx

2. Ca2+ -Calmodulin complex

3. activates Myosin-light chain

kinase (MLCK)

4. phosphorylates Myosin

5. Contraction
(terminated by Ca-removal)
Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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 Muscle afferents

Golgi
tendon organ nerve terminal
tendon

Muscle fiber

Muscle spindle

Different fibers for

different sensitivity
and purpose

Kandel; Principles of Neural Science

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 Muscle spindle - monosynaptic stretch reflex

Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology Kandel; Principles of Neural Science

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 Golgi tendon organ measures tension

Kandel; Principles of Neural Science Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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Spinal connections summary

Inverse effects
of all fibres
on contralateral
side missing
(only indicated)

Guyton & Hall; Textbook of Medical Physiology

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 Stretch reflex

Patellar
reflex

Guyton & Hall;

Textbook of Medical Physiology

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 Elektromyogramm

Kandel; Principles of Neural Science

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