Active Passive Force

The more stimuli per second, the greater the force generated by the muscle due to a

This activity is the critical driving force of muscle contraction. The stream of action potentials along the muscle fiber surface is terminated as Acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction is broken down by acetyl cholinesterase. The release of Calcium ions is ceased. The action of the myosin molecule heads is obstructed because of the change in the configuration of troponin and tropomyosin due to the absence of calcium ions. This will eventually cause the contraction to be ceased. Together with these physical processes, an external stretching force such as gravity pulls the muscle back to its normal length.

than they would at their natural length. This means that the muscle fibers will generate less tension with each

Smooth muscle contraction occurs when calcium is present in the smooth muscle cell and binds onto calmodulin to activate myosin light chain kinase (Wilson et al., 2002). Phosphorylation of myosin light chains result in myosin ATPase activity thus cross-bridge cycling occurs causing the muscle to contract (Horowitz et al., 1996). There are two known models of excitation and contraction in smooth muscle, electromechanical coupling (EMC) and pharmomechanical coupling

The results in Figure 2. show that increasing the stimulus strength (V) from 0 to o.40V will result in an increase of Active Muscle force generated by the gastrocnemius muscle in the Buffo Marinus, confirming the hypothesis. The force generated plateaus when the stimulus is beyond o.40V.

In turn, this result in the allowance of the muscles to contract is involuntary and requires no thought.

Martini, F. H., Nath, J. L., and Bartholomew, E. F. “Muscle Tissue.” Anatomy & Physiology. 9th

Myofibrils are made up of long proteins that include myosin, titin, and actin while other proteins bind them together. These proteins are arranged into thin and thick filaments that are repetitive along the myofibril in sectors known as sarcomeres. The sliding of actin and myosin filaments along each other is when the muscle is contracting. Dark A-bands and light I-bands reappear along myofibrils. The alignment of myofibrils causes an appearance of the cell to look banded or striated. A myofibril is made up of lots of sarcomeres. As the sarcomeres contract individually the muscle cells and myofibrils shorten in length. The longitudinal section of skeletal muscle exhibits a unique pattern of alternating light and dark bands. The dark staining, A-bands possess a pale region in the middle called the H-zone. In the middle of the H-zone the M-line is found, that displays filamentous structures that can join the thick filaments. The light-staining bands also known as I-bands are divided by thin Z-line. These striated patterns appear because of the presence of myofibrils in the sarcoplasm (IUPUI, 2016).

This lab was conducted to test the muscle reaction to three different solutions and observe the muscle contraction in the presence of each solution. We predicted that ATP solution in distilled water might cause muscle contraction since ATP alone binds to myosin to break the cross-bridge and enable the myosin to rebind to actin at the next muscle contraction. (“ATP and Muscle Contraction.” Boundless Biology) All three groups were given a 2cm length of psoas muscle, which was placed on a microscope slide with a small drop of glycerol.

Review Sheet Results 1. Describe how increasing the stimulus frequency affected the force developed by the isolated whole skeletal muscle in this activity. How well did the results compare with your prediction? Your answer: When the stimulus frequency was at the lowest the force was at its lowest level out of all of the experiments. As the stimulus frequency was increased to 130, s/s the force increased slightly but fused tetanus developed at the higher frequency. When the stimulus frequency was increased to the amounts of 146-150 s/s, the force reached a plateau and maximal tetanic tension occurred, where no further increases in force occur from additional stimulus frequency. 2. Indicate what type of force was developed by the isolated skeletal muscle in this activity at the following stimulus frequencies: at 50 stimuli/sec, at 140 stimuli/sec, and above 146 stimuli/sec. Your answer: At 50- Unfused

RESULT: To find the contraction percentage of the muscle fiber when mixed with the different solutions. The initial length (mm) was subtracted by the ending length (mm) which equated to the net change in

The further the muscle is stretched the bigger the force it exerts. This is a linear effect.

1. What happens to the passive force as the muscle length is increased from 50mm to 100mm?

Exercise 2: Skeletal Muscle Physiology: Activity 3: The Effect of Stimulus Frequency on Skeletal Muscle Contraction Lab Report Pre-lab Quiz Results You scored 100% by answering 4 out of 4 questions correctly. 1. During a single twitch of a skeletal muscle You correctly answered: b. maximal force is never achieved. 2. When a skeletal muscle is repetitively stimulated, twitches can overlap each other and result in a stronger muscle contraction than a stand-alone twitch. This phenomenon is known as You correctly answered: c. wave summation. 3. Wave summation is achieved by You correctly answered: a. increasing the stimulus frequency (the rate of stimulus delivery to the muscle). 4. Wave summation increases the force produced in the muscle.

The most widely accepted theory explaining how muscle fibers contract is called the sliding filament theory. According to this theory, myosin filaments use energy from ATP to “walk” along the actin filaments with their cross bridges. This pulls the actin filaments closer together.