SKELETAL MUSCLES

SKELETAL MUSCLE:

1. It is striated muscle and muscle fiber is cylindrical in shape.

2. There are many nuclei in the skeletal muscle fiber which are
situated towards the periphery of the fiber.
3. It works under the control of will (voluntary muscle) .

This is made up of contractile proteins.

Cytoskeletal proteins in muscle are:

a. Contractile: Myosin and Actin.

b. Regulatory: Tropomyosin and Troponin.

c. Anchoring: Actinin, titin, nebulin, dystrophin.

Structure of muscle:

a. Thick filament is made up of myosin.

b. Myosin has 2 globular heads.
The globular head has
an actin binding site.
Catalytic site for hydrolysis of ATP.

Thin filament is made up of mainly Actin, Troponin and Tropomyosin.

Sarcotubular system:

Made up of:
a. L- tubule (longitudinal tubule) – Sarcoplasmic reticulum
b. T- Tubule (transverse tubule) - Invagination of the sarcolemma into the
muscle cells
 FUNCTIONS
z T tubule Allows rapid transmission of action potential from cell
membrane to all muscle fibers
z L tubule is concerned with Ca movement

TROPOMYOSIN – long filaments present in the groove between two actin

chains that prevents interaction of actin with myosin by covering the binding
site of actin.

Troponin – Tropomyosin complex is the relaxing protein that inhibits the

interaction of actin with myosin

Troponin is of three types

TROPONIN T – Binds other troponin parts to tropomyosin

TROPONIN I – It inhibits the interaction of actin with myosin
TROPONIN C – Ha Ca binding sites that initiates contraction

STRUCTURE:

1. The muscle fibers lie parallel to one another and show transverse dark
A bands and in the centre of each A band is a slightly less refractile
region called H band.
 1. A M line is seen in the middle of H band. This line plus narrow light
area on either side of it is called pseudo H zone.

2. The light band is made of lower refractile material and looks lighter
and is called I band.

3. In the centre of each I band is a narrow zone of highly refractile

material which looks dark called Z line.

4. Contractile unit of muscle is substance included between two adjacent

Z lines is called sarcomere.

5. Skeletal muscle consists of fibers covered by sarcolemma. The fiber

contains sarcoplasm, nuclei, sarcoplasmic reticulum and transverse
tubules.

CYTOSKELETAL PROTEINS:
EXCITATION CONTRACTION COUPLING

The process by which depolarization of the muscle fiber initiates contraction

STEPS

z Action potential generated in a nerve causes action potential in the

muscle
z Depolarization starts at the motor nerve end plate in the muscle called
as END PLATE POTENTIAL
z If the depolarization is large enough then it causes action potential in
the adjacent parts of muscle cell membrane
z Action potential generated reaches all the muscle fibrils via T –
tubule
z It triggers the release of Ca from the terminal cisterns of the L- tubule
z The released Ca binds to TROPONIN -C
z Troponin gets separated from the tropomyosin
z When tropomyosin moves away , myosin heads binds to actin
z Contraction of the muscle starts by movement of myosin on actin.
z Relaxation is brought about by active pumping of Ca back into the
sarcoplasmic reticulum.