Smooth and Cardiac

Muscles
d r. Debby Mirani Lubis, [Link]
 LO
• Self-generated electrical activity in smooth
muscles.
• Pacemaker Potentials
• Modification of Smooth Muscle Activity by the
Autonomic Nervous System
• Other Factors Influencing Smooth Muscle Activity
• Cardiac muscle blends features of both skeletal
and smooth muscle
Comparison of Contractile Process in
Different Muscle Types
Arrangement of thick and thin filaments in a smooth
muscle cell in relaxed and contracted states
Calcium activation of myosin cross bridge in smooth muscle
Comparison of the role of Ca 2+ in
bringing about contractions
in smooth muscles and skeletal
muscles.
Smooth muscles are grouped into two
categories based on differences in how the
muscle fibers get excited:
• multiunit smooth muscle e
• single-unit smooth muscle e
 Multiunit smooth muscle is neurogenic.
• a multiunit smooth muscle consists of multiple discrete units that function independently of
one another and must be separately stimulated by nerves to undergo action potentials and
contracts,
• similar to skeletal muscle motor units .
• contractile activity in both skeletal muscle and multiunit smooth muscle is neurogenic
(“nerve produced”).
• contraction in these muscle types is initiated only in response to stimulation by the nerves
supplying the muscle.
• All multiunit smooth muscle is phasic , contracting only when neurally stimulated .
• multiunit (as well as single-unit) smooth muscle is supplied by the involuntary autonomic
nervous system.
• Smooth muscle multiunit is found in:
(1) the walls oflarge blood vessels;
(2) small airways to the lungs;
(3) the muscles of the eye that adjusts the lens for near or far vision;
(4) the iris of the eye, which alters the pupil size to adjust the amount of light entering the eye;
(5) at the base of hair follicles, contraction of which causes “goose bumps.”
Single-unit smooth muscle is myogenic
• Single-unit smooth muscle is self-excitable , so it does n't require
nervous stimulation for contractions.
• Single-unit smooth muscle may be of the phasic or tonic type.
• phasic single-unit smooth muscles  clusters of specialized cells
within a functional syncytium displays spontaneous electrical
activity  they can undergo action potentials without any external
stimulation.
• the self-excitable cells of phasic single-unit smooth muscles do not
maintain a constant resting potential.
• Two major types of spontaneous depolarizations displayed by self-
excitable cells are pacemaker potentials and slow-wave potentials.
 Single-unit smooth muscle cells form
functional syncytia.
• Most smooth muscle is single-unit smooth muscle,
alternatively called visceral smooth muscle, because it is
found in the walls of the hollow organs or viscera (for
example, the digestive, reproductive, and urinary tracts
and small blood vessels).
• The muscle fibers in single-unit smooth muscles are
electrically linked by gap junctions
• Such a group of interconnected muscle cells that function
electrically and mechanically as a unit is known as a
functional syncytium (plural, syncytia; syn means
“together”; cyt means “cells”).
 Pacemaker Potentials
• the membrane potential gradually depolarizes on its own because of shifts in passive ionic
fluxes accompanying automatic changes in ion channel permeability
• When the membrane has depolarized to threshold, an action potential is initiated.
• After repolarizing, the membrane potential again depolarizes threshold,
• Self-excitable smooth muscle pacemaker cells are specialized to initiate action potentials,
but they are not equipped to contract.
• Only a few of all the cells in a functional syncytium are noncontractile , pacemaker cells.
• Most smooth muscle cells are specialized to contract but cannot self-initiate action
potentials.
• However, once an action potential is initiated by a self-excitable pacemaker cell, it is
conducted to the remaining contractile, nonpacemaker cells of the functional syncytium
via gap junctions, so the entire group of connected cells contracts as a unit without any
nervous input.
• Such nerve-independent contractile activity initiated by the muscle itself is called
myogenic activity (“muscle-produced” activity), in contrast to the neurogenic activity of
skeletal muscle and multi-unit smooth muscle.
 Slow-Wave Potentials
• Slow-wave potentials are spontaneous, gradually alternating depolarizing and hyperpolarizing
swings in potential brought about by unknown means.
• They occur only in the smooth muscles of the digestive tract.
• Slow-wave potentials are initiated by specialized clusters of nonmuscle pacemaker cells
within the digestive tract wall and spread to the adjacent smooth muscle cells via gap
junctions.
• If threshold is reached at the peak of a depolarizing swing, a burst of action potentials occurs.
• These action potentials bring about myogenically induced contractions.
• Threshold is not always reached, however, so the oscillating slow-wave potentials can
continue without generating action potentials and contractile activities .
• Whether the threshold is reached depends on the starting point of the membrane potential
at the onset of its depolarizing swing.
• The starting point, in turn, is influenced by neural and local factors typically associated with
meals
• Recall that tonic single-unit smooth muscle cells have sufficient cytosolic Ca2 + to maintain
low level tension even without action potentials, so they are too myogenic.
• Self-generated
electrical activity in
smooth muscles.
(a) with pacemaker potentials, the
membrane gradually depolarizes
to threshold on a regular
periodic basis without any
nervous stimulation. These
regular depolarizations cyclically
trigger self-induced action
potentials
(b) In slow-wave potentials, the the
membrane gradually undergoes
self-induced hyperpolarizing and
depolarizing swings in potential.
A burst of action potentials
occurs if a depolarizing swing
brings the membrane to
threshold.
 Modification of Smooth Muscle Activity by
the Autonomic Nervous System
• Smooth muscle is typically innervated by both branches of the
autonomic nervous system.
• single-unit smooth muscle (both phasic and tonic), this nerve supply
does not initiate contraction , but it can modify the rate and strength of
contraction, either enhancing or retarding the inherent contractile
activity of a given organ.
• the receptors that bind with autonomic neurotransmitters are dispersed
throughout the entire surface membrane of a smooth muscle cell.
• Smooth muscle cells are sensitive to varying degrees and in varying ways
to autonomic neurotransmitters, depending on the cells' distribution of
cholinergic and adrenergic receptors
• a given smooth muscle cell can be influenced by more than one type of
neurotransmitter, and each autonomic terminal can influence more than
one smooth muscle cell.
Innervation of smooth muscle by autonomic
postganglionic nerve terminals .
 Other Factors Influencing Smooth Muscle
Activity
• Other factors (besides autonomic neurotransmitters) can
influence the rate and strength of both multiunit and single-
unit smooth muscle contractions, including :
• mechanical stretching,
• hormones ,
• local metabolites,
• specific drugs.
• the smooth muscle of digestive organs is also influenced by
the enteric nervous system, which is a specialized network
of nerves fibers built into the wall of the digestive tract
 Cardiac muscle blends features of both
skeletal and smooth muscle
• Cardiac muscle, found only in the heart, shares structural and
functional features with both skeletal and single-unit smooth muscles.
• Like skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle is striated, with its thick and thin
filaments highly organized into a banding pattern.
• Cardiac thin filaments contain troponin and tropomyosin , which
constitutes the site of Ca2 + action in switching on crossbridge activity,
as in skeletal muscle.
• Also like skeletal muscles, cardiac muscle has a clear length–tension
relationship.
• Like the oxidative skeletal muscle fibers, cardiac muscle cells have lots
of mitochondria and myoglobin.
• They also have T tubules and a moderately well-developed SR.
• Like smooth muscle, cardiac muscle fibers are slender and short (10 to 20 mm in diameter and 50
to 100 mm long).
• likes single-unit smooth muscle, the heart displays pacemaker ( but not slow-wave) activity,
initiating its action potentials without any external influence.
• Cardiac cells are interconnected by gaps junctions are found in intercalated discs that join cells
together
• Gap junctions increase the spread of action potentials throughout the heart, just as in single-unit
smooth muscles .
• As in smooth muscle, Ca2 + enters the cytosol from both the ECF and the SR during cardiac
excitation.
• Ca2 + entry from the ECF occurs through voltage-gated dihydropyridine receptors, which also
acts as Ca2 + channels in the T tubule membrane.
• This is Ca2 + entry from the ECF triggers the release of Ca2 + intracellularly from the SR.
• the heart is innervated by the autonomic nervous system, which, along with certain hormones
and local factors, can modify the rate and strength of contraction .
• cardiac fibers are joined in a branching network, and cardiac muscle action potentials last much
longer before repolarizing.