The Musculoskeletal System
Prepared by lecturer Yousaf khan
The Muscular System
• The ability to move is an essential activity of the
human body
• ½ our body weight comes from muscles
• Consists of over 600 individual muscles.
• 3 purposes:
– Body movement
– Body shape
– Body heat (maintain temp.)
The Muscular System
• Muscles are responsible for all movement of the body
• Body movements are determined by three types of
muscles
– Smooth (involuntary) – cannot be controlled by will.
– Cardiac – control the contractions of the heart.
– Skeletal (Voluntary) – can be controlled by will.
Info About Muscles
• Only body tissue able to contract
• create movement by flexing and extending
joints
• Body energy converters (many muscle cells
contain many mitochondria)
Classification of Muscle
• Skeletal-
• found in limbs
• Striated, multi-nucleated
• voluntary
• Cardiac-
• found in heart
• Striated, 1 nucleus
• involuntary
• Smooth-
• Found in viscera
• Not striated, 1 nucleus
• involuntary
Characteristics of Muscle
• Skeletal and smooth muscle are elongated
• Muscle cell = muscle fiber
• Contraction of a muscle is due to movement of
microfilaments (protein fibers)
• All muscles share some terminology
– Prefixes myo and mys refer to muscle
– Prefix sarco refers to flesh
Skeletal Muscle
• Most are attached by tendons to bones
• Cells have more than one nucleus (multinucleated)
• Striated- have stripes, banding
• Voluntary- subject to conscious control
• Tendons are mostly made of collagen fibers
• Found in the limbs
• Produce movement, maintain posture, generate heat,
stabilize joints
Structure of skeletal muscle
• Each cell (fibre) is long and cylindrical
• Muscle fibres are multi-nucleated
• Typically 50-60mm in diameter, and up to 10cm
long
• The contractile elements of
skeletal muscle cells are
myofibrils
Function of Skeletal muscles
• Attach to bones to provide voluntary
movement
– Tendons: strong, tough connective cords
– Fascia: tough, sheet-like membrane
• Produce heat and energy for the body
• Help maintain posture
• Protect internal organs
• Fleshy body parts are made of skeletal muscles
• Provide movements to the limbs, but contract
quickly, fatigue easily and lack the ability to maintain
contraction for long periods
– Blinking eyes, talking, breathing, eating, dancing
and writing all produced by these muscles
Smooth Muscle
• No striations
• Spindle shaped
• Single nucleus
• Involuntary- no conscious control
• Found mainly in the walls of hollow organs
Smooth muscle
• Lines walls of viscera
• Found in longitudinal or circular arrangement.
• Alternate contraction of circular & longitudinal
muscle in the intestine leads to peristalsis.
Structure of smooth muscle
• Spindle shaped uni-nucleated cells
• Striations not observed
• Actin and myosin filaments are present( protein
fibers)
Function of Smooth Muscle
• Called smooth muscle because they are
unmarked by striations, small spindle shaped
• Unattached to bones, act slowly, do not tire
easily and can remain contracted for a long time
• Not under conscious control so they are also
called involuntary muscles
• Found in walls of internal organs (intestines,
bladder, stomach, uterus, blood vessels)
Cardiac Muscle
• Striations
• Branching cells
• Involuntary
• Found only in the heart
• Usually has a single nucleus, but can have more than
one
Cardiac muscle
• Main muscle of heart
• Pumping mass of heart
• Critical in humans
• Heart muscle cells
behave as one unit
• Heart always contracts
to it’s full extent
Structure of cardiac muscle
• Cardiac muscle cells (fibres) are short, branched and
interconnected
• Cells are striated & usually have 1 nucleus
• Adjacent cardiac cells are joined via electrical synapses
(gap junctions)
• These gap junctions appear as dark lines and are called
intercalated discs
Function of cardiac muscle
• Found only in the heart
• Involuntary muscle
• Requires a continuous supply of oxygen to
function
• Cardiac muscle cells begin to die after 30
seconds of oxygen cut-off
• Striated and branched
Muscle Control
Type of Muscle Nervous control Type of control Example
Skeletal Controlled by CNS Voluntary Lifting a glass
Cardiac Regulated by ANS Involuntary Heart beating
Smooth Controlled by ANS Involuntary peristalsis
Special muscles
• Sphincter (dilator) muscles are openings
between
– the esophagus and stomach
– The stomach and small intestines
– Walls of the anus, urethra and mouth
• Open and close to control passage of
substances
Characteristics of Muscles
• All muscles have 4 common characteristics
– Excitability – ability to respond to a stimulus
(ie: nerve impulse)
– 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
Sources of heat/energy
• When muscles work, they produce heat that our
body needs to function properly
• Major source of this energy is ATP – a
compound found in muscle cells
• ATP requires muscle cells to have oxygen,
glucose and other materials circulated by the
blood
• When the muscle is stimulated, ATP is released,
thus producing heat
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