Muscle

Front 1

What are the functions of skeletal muscle?

Back 1

1. Pulling on bones to produce movement of the skeleton at the joints
2. Maintaining posture
3. Supporting and protecting soft tissues of the abdomen and pelvis
4. Controlling entrances and exits of the digestive and urinary systems
5. Producing heat to maintain internal body temperature
6. Serving as a reservoir for amino acids that can be used in times of poor nutrition
   

Front 2

What is a tendon?

Back 2

• Rope-like bundle of dense regular connective tissue that is located at the ends of a muscle and contains collagen fibers
• Connects muscle to bone

Front 3

What is an aponeurosis?

Back 3

A tendon that is shaped like a broad sheet

Front 4

What is the epimysium?

Back 4

The outer dense layer of connective tissue that is rich in collagen fibers and surrounds the entire muscle

Front 5

What is the perimysium?

Back 5

Fibrous connective tissue rich in collagen and elastin that divides muscle into compartments called fascicles and that contain nerves and blood vessels throughout

Front 6

What is the endomysium?

Back 6

The delicate connective tissue layer that encases individual muscle fibers and connects together adjacent muscle fibers within the fascicle and contains capillaries and neurons

Front 7

What is a muscle fiber?

Back 7

A single multinucleate muscle cell wrapped in endomysium

Front 8

What is a fascicle?

Back 8

A bundle of muscle fibers within a muscle surrounded by perimysium

Front 9

What is the neuromuscular junction?

Back 9

The point at which a branch of the motor neuron connects with a single muscle fiber

Front 10

What is the axon of a motor neuron?

Back 10

A branch of efferent motor neuron, which sends messages away from the neuron, and carries a wave of depolarization to the muscle

Front 11

What is the axon terminal?

Back 11

The distal portion of a motor neuron that forms the neuron side of the neuromuscular junction; receives messages - afferent

Front 12

What are synaptic vesicles?

Back 12

Vesicles containing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) that are located at the tip of the axon terminal and fuse with the plasma membrane of axon terminal to release ACh into synaptic cleft

Front 13

What is the synaptic cleft?

Back 13

A narrow space between the axon terminal and motor end plate that contains the molecules of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) that breaks down acetylcholine to remove it from the synaptic cleft

Front 14

What is the motor end plate?

Back 14

A specialized region of the sarcolemma that forms the muscle side of the neuromuscular junction that is highly folded and contains membrane receptor proteins that bind acetylcholine; when acetylcholine is bound to the receptors, Na+ rushes into the muscle fiber which may depolarize the sarcolemma