Sarcolemma

The sarcolemma is the plasma membrane of the striated muscle fiber. It consists of three layers that surround and contain the sarcoplasm, which is the cytoplasm of the muscle fiber. The outer layer is a coat of polysaccharide (sugar) molecules, while the other two layers are lipid.

The sarcolemma wraps around every striated muscle fiber like an elastic sheath, holding and protecting the sarcoplasm inside. This protective covering of the muscle fiber contains numerous T-tubules which penetrate the mass of myofibrils that make up the myocyte (muscle fiber=cell). These tubules reach the sarcomeres contained in the myofibrils. Each sarcomere is served by two T-tubules which invaginate from the sarcolemma near the A band and I band junction.

The tubules contact the terminal cisternae in the myofibril. One T-tubule and two cisternae form a triad. In human skeletal muscle, triads are located near the junctions of A and I bands. The remainder of the I band is covered by mitochondria, which align somewhat perpendicular to the myofibril long axis.

Skeletal Muscle Regeneration

The skeletal muscle regeneration occurs differently from other body tissue repair process. This is so, because the nuclei in skeletal muscle fibers cannot divide. Instead muscle regeneration, or repair, is carried out through myosatellite cells; these are muscle stem cells, the precursor of skeletal muscle. They are small uninuclear (one nucleus) cells enclosed in the membrane of skeletal muscle fibers.

When a muscle is injured, or stimulated to grow by repeated strenuous exercise, myosatellite cells divide, producing new cells which replace the damaged cells. If strenuous exercise continues, one daughter cell from satellite cell mitosis fuses with existing muscle fibers, achieving repair or causing a hypertrophic increase in muscle mass, as when people work out or do sports. The other daughter cells remain stem cells.

To foster, or nurture, skeletal muscle cell regeneration, it is important to eat food that contains the twelve essential amino acids, such as lysine, histidine, leucine, and methionine, among others, and essential minerals, such as zinc. Animal food, such as meat, egg, and cheese, are the only types of food which contain proteins with the twelve essential amino acids. Cholesterol is also important for the production of testosterone, which is important in muscle building. Eggs have plenty of cholesterol, as well as proteins, vitamin B12, A retinol, D, and E.

Motor End Plate

The motor end plate is a flat branching structure, which is mainly composed of neuron axon terminal endings. It marks the site of the neuromuscular junction through which a lower motor neuron innervate several muscle fibers of a skeletal muscle. It functions as a synapse for electrochemical transmission from the efferent neuron to the muscle fiber. The motor end plate lies over the sarcolemma, which is the cell membrane of the muscle fiber, but it does not touch it directly. There is a space between them; it is the synaptic cleft.

The nerve endings at the neuromuscular junction is surrounded by a Schwann's cell; hence, it is myelinated. The part of the sarcolemma under the motor end plate forms deep grooves, with folds. Mitochondria are plentiful in the neuron axon terminals and also in the sarcoplasm beneath them. Remember, the sarcoplasm is the muscle fiber cytoplasm contained in the sarcolemma. During muscle relaxation, the sarcolemma is electrically polarized. Contraction occurs when efferent nerve impulses start a wave of depolarization which jumps and spreads quickly over the sarcolemma from the motor end plate.

In addition, many synaptic vesicles, which contain the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, are present within the axon terminals. The motor end plate is a directed terminal synapse where depolarizing efferent impulses from the lower motor neuron cause the synaptic vesicles to fuse with specific sites on the presynaptic terminal. The resulting exocytosis of acetylcholine into the synaptic cleft leads to depolarization of the juxtaposed area of the sarcolemma. (Exocytosis is the ejection of materials from within a cell).

Depolarization in efferent excitation leads to an influx of calcium ions which cause synaptic vesicles to make contact with the axolemma (the axon membrane at the terminal end) and discharge their content into the synaptic cleft. The acetylcholine receptors in the muscle fiber sarcolemma lie mostly along the opening of the junctional folds.

Below, schematic picture of motor end plate on sarcolemma of muscle fiber.


Why is Red Meat Red?

Why is red meat red? And why is white meat white? These are the two questions that many people ask themselves or search for an answer, even though they know that red meat is typical of mammals, such as ruminants (cattle, deer, sheep, goat), horse, and hog, and that white meat is common in fish and poultry (farm birds). The answer to these questions lies in the sarcoplasm, which is the cytoplasm of the cardiac and skeletal muscle fiber (myocyte).

Aside from myofibrils, the sarcoplasm contains a reddish brown protein called myoglobin, which is somewhat similar to the hemoglobin, the protein found in the blood erythrocytes. Myoglobin takes up oxygen from the blood and stores it in the sarcoplasm, so that it is available in the amount needed for energy production in the form of ATP, which is carried out by the cell mitochondria. A high amount of myoglobin and abundant mitochondria are characteristic of red and dark color muscles; hence the red meat of mammals and the dark-reddish brown meat of wild birds, such as wild partridge, quail, and mallard. The muscles of these wild fowl hold a high quantity of both myoglobin and mitochondria, while the white meat of fish and farm birds have only scarce amount of myoglobin.

Why is red meat red? Physiological reason

As aforementioned, the  dark-red color is due to the preponderance of red muscle fibers, which have abundance of myoglobin and mitochondria. A substantial content of these two components enables these red fibers to maintain contraction over longer periods of time, during harsh physical exertions. There are other types of skeletal muscle, such as white meat, like the pectoral muscle in chicken, which contains a high proportion of white fibers; this is due to the fact that they have a scarce amount myoglobin and mitochondria. Adapted for shorter bursts of rapid contractile activity, these lighter-colored muscles exhaust more rapidly.

Finally, intermediate muscle fibers are structurally and functionally intermediate between red and white fibers. Most human muscles are made up of red and intermediate fibers. It is very important to point out that people that work out in a gym, or perform labor jobs that demand strenuous physical exertion, with a diet rich in animal proteins, will develop more red muscle fibers than intermediate. In the same way, it is important to note, that poultry or farm birds, which do not fly, nor run, and are fed on unnatural feed, have white fiber muscle, or meat. In contrast to poultry, wild fowl, which fly or run constantly and eat wild natural feed, have reddish or dark brown muscle fibers, even in their pectoral muscles.

Below, on the left, wild partridge meat, which is read, and, on the right, a farm chicken.

Below, the traditional beef steak (mammal meat).


Sarcomere

The sarcomere is the basic contractile unit of a skeletal muscle fiber. It is part of the myofibril, lying between consecutive Z bands. Therefore, each myofibril represents a continuous series of sarcomeres joined at Z lines. When it is relaxed, it measures between 2 and 3 μ (micron), contracting to roughly half its resting length as it pulls its Z lines closer together.

A sarcomere contains two sets of contractile filaments; actin and myosin, which are two types of proteins. Actin is a thin filament, while a myosin is a thick one. These filaments are longitudinally oriented both in the sarcomere and the myofibril. Half the actins are attached to the Z lines. Muscular contraction is the result of inward sliding of the thin filaments (actin) along the fixed thick ones, until they nearly meet in the middle of the sarcomere. This sliding action shortens the distance between the Z lines.

Aside from the actin and the myosin, the sarcomere also contains titin (also called connectin), which is a protein but with a high molecular weight. Titin molecules are long enough to connect an M line with a Z line. At one end, they have a domain that is incorporated into a thick filament, and at the other end they have a spring-like elastic domain which connects the thick filament with the Z lines. Comparatively rigid lattices and ring-like arrangements of intermediate filaments provide further internal and external support for the sarcomere.

High resolution electron micrograph of a sarcomere in skeletal muscle fiber. The sarcomere extends from Z line to Z line.

Below, a picture of a sarcomere, showing the different parts that make up its whole structure.


Skeletal Muscle Fibers

The skeletal muscle fibers are long and cylindrical, with rounded ends. They extend the full length of short muscles but only half way along larger ones. Each one of these fibers is a cell, called myocyte, which contains many nuclei.; thus, it is said that they are multinucleated. The relative long nuclei occupy a peripheral position just under the cell surface.

The cytoplasm of the one cell (a skeletal muscle fiber) is called sarcoplasm, which contains striated cylindrical elements called myofibrils. The myofibrils extend the full length of the fiber. The pattern of striation on these thread-like components shows precise lateral registration. Thus, each so-called band of the muscle fiber consists of closely approximated segments of numerous myofibrils. Each myofibril in turn contains sarcomeres, which are the contractile segments of the myofibril. A sarcomere is made up of actin and myosin filaments, which are motility proteins.

Seen under a high power microscope in longitudinal section, the skeletal muscle fibers show a distinctive pattern of alternating dark and light-staining transverse bands. Under polarized light, the dark-staining bands are anisotropic, which means they double-refract light (in different directions), whereas the light-staining bands are isotropic (identical in all directions). Therefore, the dark bands are called A bands (for anisotropic), while the light bands are called I bands (for isotropic). A dark line, called Z line, bisects each band. In relaxed fibers, a paler region termed the H zone can sometimes be distinguished. Although apparently each band traverses the entire muscle fiber in a continuous way, in reality, this is not the case.

Below, a schematic picture which shows the location of a skeletal muscle fiber and the myofibrils it is composed of in relation to a fasciculus (fascicle) and a muscle.



Muscle Fiber Anatomy

To understand the muscle fiber anatomy, we must first grasp what a muscle fiber is. It is a highly specialized cell which constitutes the structural and functional unit of the muscular tissue. In other words, the apparatus of muscular contraction revolves around it, or is based on it. Billions of muscle fibers make up a skeletal muscle, which is anchored to bone through tendons. When these cells contract, a body part moves, such as an arm or leg, or when we turn the head.

Histological Description

The muscle fiber anatomy is the histological description of the fundamental unit of the muscular tissue. This cell, called myocyte, measures between 10 and 12 cm in length, and 70 and 80 μ (micron) in diameter. Each muscle fiber is covered by a membrane called sarcolemma, which surrounds and holds the sarcoplasm and many nuclei. The sarcoplasm is the muscle fiber cytoplasm, which contains the organelles of the myocyte. Some of these organelles have specific function. The main organelle is the myofibril (myofibrillae), which contains myofilaments.

Like any other eukaryotic cell cytoplasm, the sarcoplasm also has smooth endoplasmic reticulum, which is called sarcoplasmi reticulum. The sarcoplasmic reticulum is completely involved in regulating the calcium concentration around myofibrils. It forms an anastomosing network of interconnected cisternae (flat sac-like structures) which communicate with dilated terminal cisternae.

The myofibril's myofilaments are minutest thread-like structures, which are made of a special protein that render them able to contract. These myofilaments overlap to form sarcomeres, which are composed of myosin and actin (thick and thin filament, respectively). The physico-optical properties of the myofibrils differ along the length of the muscle fiber, making it striated due to the presence of alternating bands. Under polarized light, some of them glisten due to the presence of anisotropic discs that double-refract light, while others fail to refract light; these are dark isotropic discs.

Each muscle fiber and small group of fibers are surrounded by a connective tissue membrane called endomysium. Large group of muscle fibers form muscle bands, or fasciculi. These fasciculi, together with the whole muscle, are enclosed in a connective tissue membrane, which is known as the perimysium. Blood vessels and nerves reach the muscle fibers in the layers of connective tissue.

Each muscle has a developed network of blood vessels. The contraction of the muscle promotes the fast flow of blood as if it were a peculiar pump which forces the blood forward. Under conditions of reduced motor activity (hypokenesia), this function of the skeletal muscle is excluded, as a result of which the blood flows slower and metabolic processes are reduced and the consumption of glucose or ketone bodies drops. In contrast, under conditions of intense motor activity, the reserve capillaries open, new capillaries are formed, and nutrition of skeletal muscles improves.

Below, a portion of a muscle fiber showing striations and myofibrils.

Transverse view of part of an skeletal muscle exposing the connective tissue components that wrap muscle fibers, fasciculi, and muscle.