0:12
In this title slide, this image is a light microscope image of skeletal muscle.
And you can see how it has these little stripes, which are striations,
and we'll talk about how these are important for
the contraction of muscle, and in particular skeletal muscle.
So we're going to have two videos about skeletal muscle, and
in this first one we're going to talk about all three muscle types very briefly,
and then we're going to talk about some general principles of muscle contraction.
And then we'll move into talking about skeletal muscle structure, and
how contraction occurs.
And then in the second session we'll focus on how tension is formed, and
some of the characteristics of tension,
as well as some principles about muscle metabolism.
1:03
So there are going to be three main types of muscle in the body.
Of course, today we're going to be talking about skeletal muscle,
which is also striated, because it has these stripes.
Skeletal muscle fibers, or cells,
you can use those terms interchangeably, are going to be quite large,
both in diameter, and often in length, because a skeletal muscle cell or
fiber is going to run the entire length of a muscle.
So they're going to be very large, and
they're actually going to be multinucleated.
They're going to have many nuclei.
That's what most of these are that you can see in this diagram, and
they're at the edge of the cell or fiber.
And then of course it's going to be controlled by the somatic nervous system.
Dr. Jakoy is going to tell you about cardiac muscle, which is also striated,
meaning it also has those stripes that you can see in the microscope,
because of the alignment of the myosin and actin filaments.
2:43
Then she will also discuss briefly, smooth muscle,
which is going to be present in many organs in the body.
And these are going to be different,
because smooth muscle cells are not striated.
They still contain myosin and actin, but
they're not organized in such a way that you can see it on a microscopic level.
3:06
And so they won't have those stripes in the microscope, and
they're also going to be relatively small cells, often spindle-shaped.
And again, they're very often going to function as a sheet of cells, and
to do that, they will have tight junctions, or strong junctions,
between the cells that will allow them to adhere to one another as
they're contracting, so that they can act as a unit.
And again their action, or their amount of activity or
contraction, will be regulated by the autonomic nervous system.
5:13
So let's move in now to more specifically talking about skeletal muscle,
where we've already said that the muscle itself is going to be made up
of many muscles, cells, or fibers.
You can use that term interchangeably.
So here's a cross-section of a muscle, and you see that we are going to zoom in
on a single muscle cell or fiber, and then that cell or
fiber is composed of many other units called myofibrils.
And that's what's show here, where we can zoom in and look at a single myofibril,
that is going to be composed of many molecules of actin and myosin.
So it's going to be the number of myofibrils in a muscle cell,
that is going to determine the force that it can generate.
So the myofibril is kind of the functioning unit within the cell
that is contracting, and along its length,
myofibrils can be divided into sarcomeres, which is what's shown in here.
So that a muscle cell is made up of many myofibrils that are in parallel,
and then a myofibril is composed of many sarcomeres that are in series.
So there'll be hundreds, if not thousands, of sarcomeres that are making up
a single myofibril, and it's going to be each sarcomere that is going to contract.
And so if you've got many sarcomeres that are contracting at the same time,
then you're going to have a shortening of the muscle,
which will cause an action, which we'll be talking more about.
So it's the number of myofibrils that are going to determine the force generating
capability of the fiber, and we can divide the myofibril into sarcomeres.
And the sarcomere pattern is going to be what's
going to cause the striations, or the banding, of the skeletal muscle cells,
because the myofibrils will be aligned in a very organized way.
So that's what we're going to start talking about now, where at the top of
this image we have an electron micrograph of a portion of a myofibril,
that's showing you a single sarcomere.
And you can see that it's got a light portion, and
a dark portion, and that those are alternating.
So that if we had many sarcomeres, you would see alternating light and dark, and
light and dark, and this is going to be responsible for the striations.
Then below that image, we can see what are the fibers or
filaments that are causing that pattern where we have
these Z lines which are the ends of the sarcomere,
they determine the borders between the sarcomeres.
And sticking out of each Z line are a set of thin filaments, which are actin.
9:10
Because the myosin filaments are thick,
then they are going to appear at these dark bands.
And so we call that the A band.
And you can remember that dark has an A in it, and so it's the A band.
So anywhere where we have myosin, since it's thick, it will be staining darkly.
And that's what's responsible for this A band right here,
10:30
So we've got one sarcomere on here.
We've got our actin filaments, our thin filaments are shown in blue,
that are emanating from the Z lines, heading towards the middle of
the sarcomere, and then in red in this diagram we have myosin.
And you can see these little circle structures,
which are the heads of myosin that are going to be walking along the actin.
And there's also showing a protein called titin,
which is anchoring myosin into the sarcomere.
11:28
And our I band, as is shown, will be where there's only actin.
And so, as myosin walks toward the Z lines,
then that is going to shorten the I band,
as contraction occurs.
However, that A band is going to stay the same width.
Because myosin is not changing in length.
What's changing is the amount of actin that is alone,
because the myosin and acid are becoming more interdigitated.
And so that means that it's the I band that is going to be reduced
in width during contraction, but not the A band.
And then it's important to understand that it's not the length of these molecules
that's changing, it is the amount of interdigitation that's changing.
12:21
So, let's talk now with more detail about how this is occurring.
And we've already said that contraction is going to be regulated by calcium.
And so how is this going to happen on a molecular level?
And so we're going to look here at the top, which is actin,
our thin filaments, and you can see that there's another structure
on here called tropomyosin and troponin.
Tropomyosin is running in parallel along the actin and
it's binding actin at the site where myosin would bind.
So tropomyosin is preventing myosin from binding actin
when there is no calcium around.
With an increase in calcium, the calcium will bind to troponin,
which is made up of several troponin molecules.
And the binding of calcium to troponin will cause a change in its confirmation
that causes tripomyosin to be removed from the myosin binding sites on actin.
So we have an effective calcium that is acting on the actin, and
this is going to be in contrast to calcium modifying myosin in smooth muscle.
So that will, down here below, we’re seeing myosin which will now be able
to bind once calcium binds troponin, which will then move tropomyosin out of the way.
So that’s how calcium is going to regulate contraction,
and we'll talk more about this very soon.
14:09
Then, what's going to be required in order for the actual contraction to occur,
once we have allowed myosin to bind actin,
is that we're going to require ATP as an energy source.
So, myosin is going to be an ATPase.
Without ATP,
this is a myosin head that's emanating from the thick filament here.
Here's actin.
In red is tropomyosin and you can see how it's now moved out of the way.
We have calcium present.
But in this first state that we're seeing, the rigor state,
there's no ATP bound to this particular head,
which means that the myosin head is tightly bound to actin.
So that's call the rigor state.
It's when there's no ATP bound and it's tightly bound to the actin.
You can remember this because this is the reason for
rigor mortis, which is when if a person dies,
they quickly use up their ATP in their body.
And so as a result, the myosin will now tightly bind ATP and
that causes the stiffness of the muscles
that are characteristic of someone who has recently passed away.
Eventually, the proteins of the muscles will be broken down so
that then rigor mortis will no longer be happening, but at least for
the short time after death, rigor mortis happens because of
this rigor state when there's no ATP bound to the myosin head.
Eventually, ATP will bind, and
that is going to cause myosin to let go of the actin filament.
And then ATP Hydrolysis will occur, and
that will cause the myosin head to now ratchet forward.
16:10
And then it will bind, and there will be a release
of inorganic phosphate that will cause what's called the power stroke.
That's a ratcheting of the myosin head that is going to then cause it to
have walked up closer to that Z-line, in order for contraction to occur.
And then ADP will be released, and we will be back to the rigor state.
So it's going to be a matter of being bound in the rigor state,
binding ATP and having the myosin head let go.
Then having ATP hydrolysis, so we have a ratcheting, closer to the Z-line, and then
having inorganic phosphate be released, so that we have the power stroke.
And so now the myosin is that much closer to the Z-line,
and the cycle will continue and continue.
Keep in mind that when this particular myosin head lets go during the cycle,
that's okay, it's not like we're going to go back to a relaxed state.
Because in this thick filament, we have many, many myosin heads acting
on the actin nonsynchronously.
So that when one head has let go,
there'll be another head in a different part of the cycle.
And so that's how we can have a continual contraction and
ratcheting closer and closer to the Z-lines.
Even when individual heads
are no longer bound to the actin because of where they are in the cycle.
So this means that what we're going to need for contraction is ATP.
Which we're going to assume is going to be present, really, in all circumstances.
And we'll talk about the sources of that ATP in the next lecture.
And then we're going to need calcium, so
that myosin can bind actin in the first place.
19:13
The important thing to remember, as we've said before with the skeletal muscle
plasma membrane, is that it's basically going to be totally covered
in potassium and sodium voltage-gated channels.
So that the whole membrane will be able to have an action potential.
So that if we have a small graded potential at the synapse between
the neuron and the muscle, we are going to cause an action potential.
Because we're having a grade potential right next to
a bunch of voltage-gated channels.
So that for all intents and purposes, every time that neuron fires an action
potential, we're going to have an action potential in the skeletal muscle membrane.
So that action potential will, as I said,
travel along the whole length of the skeletal muscle membrane.
And then also travel down special invaginations of the plasma membrane,
called transverse tubules.
Transfers because they're at 90 degrees from the plasma membrane and
this is going to bring the action potential into the muscle fiber.
And on the next slide we'll see another view of that.
20:45
This sarcoplasmic reticulum is going to have to be in
very close vicinity to the T tubules.
Because, as show in this window down here,
we have to bring together two different membrane proteins.
The first is the dihydropyridine receptor, which is sitting in the T tubule membrane,
which is actually a voltage gated calcium channel.
However, it's slow to open, and so the real important
aspect of this receptor for this process is going to be that it's voltage gated.
Which means that when that action potential travels down that transverse
tubule, its confirmation is going to change.
And it's sitting, actually touching, a second receptor that's
sitting in the sarcoplasmic reticulum, the ryanodine receptor.
So the change in confirmation of the dihydropyridine receptor,
in response to the action potential,
is going to cause a change in the confirmation of the ryanodine receptor.
Which then lets calcium leave the sarcoplasmic reticulum and
enter the cytosol.
23:45
And then we have in blue the sarcoplasmic reticulum,
that is running between the two T tubules.
And so you can see how the sarcoplasmic reticulum is
wrapping around these myofibrils.
So that once the action potential travels and we get our E-C Coupling, the myofibril
is going to be bathed in calcium coming from the sarcoplasmic reticulum.
And then the sarcoplasmic reticulum will also be in a good spot
to then reuptake that calcium.
24:49
Okay, so we now talked about how we're going to have, in all muscles, actin and
myosin and they're going to slide along one another.
Because the myosin is going to, since it's a motor,
be walking along the actin to shorten the filament network.
Which is then going to shorten the cells, and that's going to generate force.
And we'll be talking more about that.
So we're going to form cross bridges, that's going to be myosin heads binding
the actin as they cycle and that's going to use ATP.
25:26
And then, we're going to couple the action potential coming from the neuron and
then traveling throughout the muscle plasma membrane.
Which is then going to cause an increase in calcium ions.
And that, in skeletal muscle, we're going to have an actin-based control
system where we're going to have calcium binding troponin.
Which then moves tropomyosin on the actin.
And then we're going to have removal of calcium through
the actions of the SR calcium ATPase.