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Muscular System

The muscular system consists of over 600 muscles that make up around 40% of the human body weight. There are three main types of muscle tissue: skeletal, smooth and cardiac. Skeletal muscle is voluntary and allows for movement, while smooth and cardiac muscle are involuntary. All muscles have the properties of excitability, contractibility, extensibility and elasticity. The basic unit of skeletal muscle is the muscle fiber, which contains bundles of myofibrils made up of actin and myosin filaments. Nerve impulses trigger the sliding of these filaments and contraction. Muscles vary in shape and fiber arrangement depending on their function. Atrophy and hypertrophy refer to decreases and increases in muscle size,

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67 views

Muscular System

The muscular system consists of over 600 muscles that make up around 40% of the human body weight. There are three main types of muscle tissue: skeletal, smooth and cardiac. Skeletal muscle is voluntary and allows for movement, while smooth and cardiac muscle are involuntary. All muscles have the properties of excitability, contractibility, extensibility and elasticity. The basic unit of skeletal muscle is the muscle fiber, which contains bundles of myofibrils made up of actin and myosin filaments. Nerve impulses trigger the sliding of these filaments and contraction. Muscles vary in shape and fiber arrangement depending on their function. Atrophy and hypertrophy refer to decreases and increases in muscle size,

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Aksidaksi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Muscular

system
Muscular system
• There are over 600 muscles in the human body. Together
they make up the muscular system.
• Muscular system works with skeletal system to:
• produce voluntary movement,
• helps movement of materials (blood, food) within the
organism,
• maintenance of a constant body temperature,
• protection of internal organs.
• Muscles make up about 40% of human’s body weight.
Characteristics of muscles
• All muscles have 4 common characteristics:
• Excitability – ability to respond to a stimulus
• Contractibility – muscle fibers that are
stimulated by nerves contract (become shorter)
and causes movement
• Extensibility – ability to be stretched
• Elasticity – allows the muscle to return to its
original shape after it has been stretched
• Muscle cells are elongated
muscle cell = muscle fiber
Types of muscles

• Humans have three types of muscle tissue:


smooth, cardiac, and skeletal.
• Each muscle type has different characteristics.
• Skeletal muscle fibers are tubular,
multinucleated, and striated and make up the
skeletal muscles attached to the skeletal
system.
• Skeletal muscle is voluntary; we can decide to
move a particular part of the body, such as the
arms and legs.
Basic structure of skeletal muscles
• An individual skeletal muscle may be made up of
hundreds, or even thousands, of muscle fibers bundled
together and wrapped in a connective tissue covering.
• Each muscle is surrounded by a connective tissue sheath
called the epimysium. 
• Fascia, connective tissue outside the epimysium,
surrounds and separates the muscles.
• A layer of connective tissue covering the muscle
contributes to the tendon, which attaches muscle to
bone.
• A muscle fiber is a cell containing the usual cellular
components, but special names have been assigned to
some of these components.
• For example, the plasma membrane is called the
sarcolemma (sarco means “muscle”); the cytoplasm is
the sarcoplasm; and the endoplasmic reticulum is the
sarcoplasmic reticulum.
Basic structure of
skeletal muscles

• The muscle fiber contains long cylindrical structures, the myofibrils. 


The myofibrils almost entirely fill the cell and push the nuclei to the outer edges of the cell under
the sarcolemma.
• The myofibrils are made up of thick and thin myofilaments, which help give the muscle its striped
appearance.
• The thick filaments are composed of myosin, and the thin filaments are predominantly actin.
• The sarcolemma forms T (transverse) tubules, which penetrate, or dip down, into the cells and
and forms a dense net. Through these structures the action potential travels through the muscle.
• Other organelles, such as mitochondria, are located in the sarcoplasm between the myofibrils.
• The sarcoplasm also contains glycogen, which provides stored energy for muscle contraction.
Muscle fiber
contraction
• Muscle fibers are stimulated to contract by
motor neurons whose axons are grouped
together to form nerves.
• The movement of actin filaments in relation
to myosin filaments is called the sliding
filament model of muscle contraction.
• ATP supplies the energy for muscle
contraction.
• Nerve impulses traveling down a motor
fiber cause synaptic vesicles to discharge
acetylcholine, which diffuses across the
synaptic cleft and binds to ACh receptors.
• Impulses travel down the T tubules of a
muscle fiber, and the muscle fiber contracts.
• A nerve fiber with all the muscle fibers it
innervates is called a motor unit.
Classification of skeletal
muscles according to shape
•  There are a number of different muscle shapes within the human
body including circular, convergent, parallel, pennate and fusiform.
• Circular muscles - these muscles appear circular in shape and are
normally sphincter muscles which surround an opening such as the
mouth and the eyes.
• Parallel muscles have fibres which, as the name suggests, run parallel
to each other and are sometimes called strap muscles.
• Pennate muscles have a large number of muscle fibres per unit and so
are very strong, but tire easily. They can be divided into: unipennate,
bipennate, multipennate.
• Fusiform muscles - these muscles are spindle-shaped, with the muscle
belly being wider than the origin and insertion. Examples are, Biceps
Brachii and Psoas major.
• Convergent muscles - these are muscles where the origin (the
attachment to a fixed bone, usually the proximal attachment) is wider
than the point of insertion. This fibre arrangement allows for
maximum force production. An example is Pectoralis Major.
Convergent muscles are also sometimes known as triangular muscles.
Complex muscles

• Complex muscles can have different shapes:


several muscle heads can be attached to the same
tendon - biceps, triceps and quadriceps muscles, or
one muscular belly (venter) with several tendons that
are attached in different places.
• The muscles are arranged in groups of synergists
(performing the same movement) and antagonists
(performing opposite movements).
Smooth muscles

• Smooth muscle fibers are shaped like narrow cylinders with pointed ends.
• Each has a single nucleus (uninucleated).
• The cells are usually arranged in parallel lines, forming sheets.
• Striations (bands of light and dark) are seen in cardiac and skeletal muscle but not in smooth
muscle.
• Smooth muscle is located in the walls of hollow internal organs, blood vessels and causes these
walls to contract.
• Contraction of smooth muscle is involuntary, occurring without conscious control.
• Although smooth muscle is slower to contract than skeletal muscle, it can sustain prolonged
contractions and does not fatigue easily.
Cardiac muscles
• Cardiac muscle forms the heart wall.
• Its fibers are generally uninucleated, striated, and
tubular.
• Branching allows the fibers to interlock at intercalated
disks.
• The plasma membranes at intercalated disks contain
gap junctions that permit contractions to spread quickly
throughout the heart wall.
• Cardiac fibers relax completely between contractions,
which prevents fatigue.
• Contraction of cardiac muscle is rhythmic. It occurs
without outside nervous stimulation and without
conscious. Thus, cardiac muscle contraction is
involuntary.
Atrophy and hypertrophy
• Muscle atrophy is the decrease in muscle strength
due to a decrease in muscle mass, or the amount of
muscle fibers.
• Atrophy has several causes including disease,
starvation, and simple disuse.
• Muscle atrophy is typical to some extent during
aging. Atrophy over time due to aging is known as
sarcopenia. 
• Muscle hypertrophy is an increase in the size of a
muscle through an increase in the size of its
component cells. It differs from muscle hyperplasia,
which is the formation of new muscle cells.
• Muscle soreness is a side effect of the stress put
on muscles when you exercise. It is commonly called
Delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, and it is
completely normal. DOMS usually begins within 6-8
hours after a new activity or a change in activity, and
can last up to 24-48 hours after the exercise.
Questions?

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