Skeletal Muscle Cells
By Lizbeth Natalie Corona
Did you know that there are 656 muscles in our
body, and 600 of them are used to move your
skeleton? When you move, skeletal muscle cells
make sure to help you. But they need help, so then
strong flexible cords called tendons help these cells
connect to bones. Tendons attach to one part of
the muscle that is stable and the other end
attaches to a part that can move. The tendons are
formed by having fibrous elastic tissue called
epimysium that protects the muscle from friction
against other muscles and bones. As soon as
tendons help skeletal muscle cells reach the bone,
it is responsible to give an impulse from a nerve
cell that way the bone knows it has to move. The
way the muscle receives the impulse is because of
connective tissues that provide internal support
and communicates with the 2 factors in which
blood circulates: nerves and blood vessels.
Capillaries allow these 2 factors to connect because
of their thick string shapes in between each
skeletal muscle cell. An artery, which is used to
carry away blood from the heart at high pressure
and at least one vein, which returns blood to the
heart at low pressure, are located in each nerve
that eventually penetrates in a skeletal muscle.
Each muscle is made up of fascicles, which are
bundles of nerves and muscle fibers surrounded by
connective tissue called the endomysium. All of
that together is surrounded by a layer of
connective tissue called perimysium. However, the
Left: Skeletal
Muscle cells
Right:
Structure of a
Skeletal
Muscle
fasciculi can vary depending on the muscle. For
example, those in the hand would contain far
fewer fibres per fasciculi . But the average fibres
that fasciculi contain is between 10 and 100 of
them. Each muscle fiber contains groups of Actin
and Myosin proteins which are important because
they give cell movement, allowing skeletal muscle
cells move to the bone.
There are 3 types of skeletal muscle cells: slow type
I, fast type IIa, and fast type IIb. The slow type I is
red and it is used when there are low-level
contractions such as when youre walking because
it has the highest resistance to fatigue. The
pathway for this type is the Aerobic cellular
respiration. Some of the areas where they are
located are the postural muscles such as the neck
and spine, including the leg muscles. The fast type
IIa is red too, but it is used when you are doing
activities involving speed and power such as fast
running and weight training. The pathways in
which the productions fall in are both the aerobic
and anaerobic. This type is located in leg muscles.
The fast type IIb is white, it is used when you do
heavy weight training, powerlifting and long
distance sprints. This type can handle this activity
because it has a higher resistance to fatigue. It uses
the anaerobic pathway only and are located in arm
muscles. In conclusion, different types of fibres
that form specific muscles vary according to how
the muscle is used. So, next time you move a
muscle think about how many things inside your
body are contributing to make that happen.