Muscle Histology

ROSITAWATI INDRATI
PKH-UB

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 MUSCLE TISSUE
Functions of muscle tissue
 Movement Their cells are called fibers
 Maintenance of posture because they are elongated

 Joint stabilization Contraction depends on

 Heat generation myofilaments
- Muscle contractions Actin
produce heat Myosin
- Helps maintain normal
Plasma membrane is called
body temperature sarcolemma
Sarcos = flesh
Lemma = sheath
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Special functional characteristics of muscle
 Contractility
 Only one action: to shorten
 Shortening generates pulling force
 Excitability
 Nerve fibers cause electrical impulse to travel
 Extensibility
 Stretch with contraction of an opposing
muscle
 Elasticity
 Recoils passively after being stretched
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Types of Muscle Tissue
 Skeletal muscle

 Cardiac muscle

 Smooth muscle

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 Types of Muscle Tissue
Skeletal
•Attach to and move skeleton
•40% of body weight
•Fibers = multinucleate cells (embryonic cells fuse)
•Cells with obvious striations
•Contractions are voluntary

Cardiac: only in the wall of

the heart
•Cells are striated
•Contractions are
involuntary (not voluntary)

Smooth: walls of hollow organs

•Lack striations
•Contractions are involuntary (not voluntary)
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Similarities…
 Their cells are called fibers because they are elongated
 Contraction depends on myofilaments
 Actin
 Myosin
 Plasma membrane is called sarcolemma
 Sarcos = flesh
 Lemma = sheath

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 Skeletal muscle
Epimysium:
surrounds
whole muscle

Endomysium is around each

Perimysium
muscle fiber
is around
fascicle

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 Each muscle: one nerve, one Skeletal
artery, one vein
 Branch repeatedly Muscle
 Attachments
 One bone to another
 Cross at least one movable joint
 Origin: the less movable attachment
 Insertion: is pulled toward the
origin
 Usually one bone moves while the
other remains fixed
 In muscles of the limb, origin lies
proximal to the insertion (by
convention)
 Note: origin and insertion may
switch depending on body position
and movement produced
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 Attachments continued
 Many muscles span two or more joints
 Called biarticular or multijoint muscles
 Cause movements at two joints
 Direct or “fleshy” attachments
 Attachments so short that muscle appears to
attach directly to bone
 Indirect: connective tissue extends well beyond the
muscle (more common)
 Tendon: cordlike (most muscles have tendons)
 Aponeurosis: flat sheet
 Raised bone markings where tendons meet
bones
 Tubercles, trochanters, crests, etc.
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Some sites showing animations
of muscle contraction

 http://entochem.tamu.edu/MuscleStrucContractswf/i
ndex.html
 http://www.brookscole.com/chemistry_d/templates/s
tudent_resources/shared_resources/animations/muscl
es/muscles.html

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Skeletal muscle
 Fibers (each is one
cell) have striations
 Myofibrils are This big
organelles of the cell: cylinder is a
fiber: 1 cell -an organelle
these are made up of
filaments
 Sarcomere
 Basic unit of
contraction
 Myofibrils are long
rows of repeating
sarcomeres
 Boundaries: Z discs (or
lines)
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Myofibrils
 Made of three types of filaments (or myofilaments):
 Thick (myosin)
 Thin (actin)
 Elastic (titin)

______actin
_____________myosin
titin_____

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Sliding Filament Model
__relaxed sarcomere__ _partly contracted_

fully contracted

Sarcomere shortens “A” band constant

because actin pulled because it is
towards its middle caused by myosin,
by myosin cross which doesn’t
bridges change length
Titin resists overstretching
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 Another pic

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 EM (electron
microscope): parts of
2 myofibrils

Labeled and unlabeled

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 Sarcoplasmic reticulum is smooth ER
 Tubules surround myofibrils
 Cross-channels called “terminal cisternae”
 Store Ca++ and release when muscle stimulated to contract
 To thin filaments triggering sliding filament mechanism of contraction
 T tubules are continuous with sarcolemma, therefore whole muscle
(deep parts as well) contracts simultaneously

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 Neuromuscular
Junction
Motor neurons innervate muscle
fibers
Motor end plate is where they
meet
Neurotransmitters are released
by nerve signal: this initiates
calcium ion release and muscle
contraction

Motor Unit: a motor neuron and all the muscle fibers it innervates (these all
contract together)
•Average is 150, but range is four to several hundred muscle fibers in a motor unit
•The finer the movement, the fewer muscle fibers /motor unit
•The fibers are spread throughout the muscle, so stimulation of a single motor
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unit causes a weak contraction
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 Types of skeletal muscle fibers
 Fast, slow and intermediate
 Whether or not they predominantly use oxygen to
produce ATP (the energy molecule used in muscle
contraction)
 Oxidative – aerobic (use oxygen)
 Glycolytic – make ATP by glycolysis (break down of
sugars without oxygen=anaerobic)
 Fast fibers: “white fibers” – large, predominantly
anaerobic, fatigue rapidly (rely on glycogen reserves);
most of the skeletal muscle fibers are fast
 Slow fibers: “red fibers” – half the diameter, 3X slower,
but can continue contracting; aerobic, more mitochondria,
myoglobin
 Intermediate: in between
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  A skeletal muscle contracts when its motor units
are stimulated
 Amount of tension depends on
1. the frequency of stimulation
2. the number of motor units involved
 Single, momentary contraction is called a muscle
twitch
 All or none principle: each muscle fiber either
contracts completely or not at all
 Amount of force: depends on how many motor
units are activated
 Muscle tone
 Even at rest, some motor units are active: tense the
muscle even though not causing movement: “resting
tone”
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Muscle hypertrophy
 Weight training (repeated intense workouts): increases
diameter and strength of “fast” muscle fibers by increasing
production of
 Mitochondria
 Actin and myosin protein
 Myofilaments containing these contractile proteins
 The myofibril organelles these myofilaments form
 Fibers enlarge (hypertrophy) as number and size of
myofibrils increase
[Muscle fibers (=muscle cells) don’t increase in number
but increase in diameter producing large muscles]

 Endurance training (aerobic): doesn’t produce hypertrophy

 Muscle atrophy: loss of tone and mass from lack of stimulation

 Muscle becomes smaller and weaker
Note on terminology: in general, increased size is hypertrophy; increased number of
cells is hyperplasia
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 Intercalated
disc__________

Cardiac muscle
 Bundles form thick
myocardium
 Cardiac muscle cells are single
cells (not called fibers)
 Cells branch
 Cells join at intercalated
discs
 1-2 nuclei in center
 Here “fiber” = long row of
joined cardiac muscle cells
 Inherent rhythmicity: each
cell! (muscle cells beat
separately without any
stimulation)

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 Smooth muscle

•Muscles are spindle-shaped cells

•One central nucleus
•Grouped into sheets: often running
perpendicular to each other
•Peristalsis
•No striations (no sarcomeres)
•Contractions are slow, sustained and
resistant to fatigue
•Does not always require a nervous signal:
can be stimulated by stretching or hormones
6 major locations:
1. inside the eye 2. walls of vessels 3. respiratory tubes
4. digestive tubes 5. urinary organs 6. reproductive organs
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This is included because troponins are measured clinically in heart
attacks…but be careful because the colors are opposite

Calcium attaches to troponin/

tropomyosin; they roll away,
exposing the active site on actin.

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 WASSALAM

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