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Related Concept Videos

Skeletal Muscle Anatomy00:55

Skeletal Muscle Anatomy

Skeletal muscle is the most abundant type of muscle in the body. Tendons are the connective tissue that attaches skeletal muscle to bones. Skeletal muscles pull on tendons, which in turn pull on bones to carry out voluntary movements.
Microscopic Anatomy of Skeletal Muscles01:13

Microscopic Anatomy of Skeletal Muscles

Skeletal muscle cells, also called muscle fibers, are distinctly elongated, multi-nucleated, slender biological units. They are packed with specialized structures designed to facilitate their primary function, which is contraction.
The muscle sarcolemma is a plasma membrane enclosing each muscle cell that conducts electrical signals called action potentials. The sarcolemma extends into the cell to form T-tubules, ensuring the neural impulses are uniformly distributed across the entire muscle...
Overview of Skeletal Muscle01:15

Overview of Skeletal Muscle

Skeletal muscles are composed of a bundle of muscle fibers and are attached to bones through tendons. Each skeletal muscle fiber is a single muscle cell. The sarcolemma, the plasma membrane of a skeletal muscle cell, consists of a lipid bilayer and glycocalyx that supports muscle fibers. The sarcolemma extends into the muscle cells to form tubular structures called transverse or T-tubules. Each side of the T-tubules consists of a membrane-bound structure called the sarcoplasmic reticulum,...
Gross Anatomy of Skeletal Muscles01:12

Gross Anatomy of Skeletal Muscles

The connective tissues play a significant role in arranging the muscle fibers into a hierarchical structure that forms a complete muscle. Consider a muscle like the bicep brachii, commonly called the bicep. This muscle comprises thousands of muscle fibers enclosed by a protective layer of connective tissue called the endomysium. The endomysium is primarily composed of reticular fibers, a type of thin collagen fiber. It allows the exchange of nutrients and waste products at the fiber level,...
Overview of Muscle Tissues01:25

Overview of Muscle Tissues

The human body has three types of muscle tissue: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. Each class has unique properties that enable them to perform specific functions. However, all muscle tissues share certain properties, including elasticity, contractility, and excitability. 
Elasticity
Elasticity is the ability of muscles to stretch and return to their original shape. This property is partly due to elastic fibers — macromolecules that run through the muscles. These fibers are firm and resilient,...
Classification of Skeletal Muscle Fibers01:48

Classification of Skeletal Muscle Fibers

Skeletal muscles continuously produce ATP to provide the energy that enables muscle contractions. Skeletal muscle fibers can be categorized into three types based on differences in their contraction speed and how they produce ATP, as well as physical differences related to these factors. Most human muscles contain all three muscle fiber types, albeit in varying proportions.
Slow-Twitch Muscle Fibers
Slow oxidative, muscle fibers appear red due to large numbers of capillaries and high levels of...

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Assessing Functional Metrics of Skeletal Muscle Health in Human Skeletal Muscle Microtissues
09:30

Assessing Functional Metrics of Skeletal Muscle Health in Human Skeletal Muscle Microtissues

Published on: February 18, 2021

A physiologically based, multi-scale model of skeletal muscle structure and function.

O Röhrle1, J B Davidson, A J Pullan

  • 1Institute of Applied Mechanics (Civil Engineering), University of Stuttgart Stuttgart, Germany ; Cluster of Excellence for Simulation Technology, University of Stuttgart Stuttgart, Germany.

Frontiers in Physiology
|September 21, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study introduces a new multi-scale finite element model for skeletal muscle, integrating cellular electrophysiology with organ-level mechanics. This physiologically based model simulates muscle force generation and fatigue, offering novel insights into muscle behavior.

Keywords:
continuum mechanicsexcitation-contraction couplingmotor-unit recruitmentmulti-scaleskeletal muscle mechanicstibialis anterior

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Area of Science:

  • Biomechanics
  • Computational Biology
  • Physiology

Background:

  • Skeletal muscle models are typically phenomenological (e.g., Hill-type) or biophysical.
  • Existing models often lack detailed physiological and structural representation.
  • There's a need for integrated models linking cellular mechanisms to whole-muscle function.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a physiologically based, multi-scale finite element model of skeletal muscle.
  • To integrate cellular electrophysiology with continuum mechanics for muscle force prediction.
  • To investigate muscle behavior, including fatigue, through simulation.

Main Methods:

  • Extended conventional biophysical modeling to include structural and functional muscle characteristics.
  • Developed a multi-scale constitutive law and homogenization technique to bridge cellular and organ levels.
  • Utilized an anatomically realistic finite element model of the tibialis anterior muscle.
  • Incorporated a motor-unit recruitment model and simulated electrophysiological behavior.

Main Results:

  • Created a detailed, physiologically based multi-scale finite element model of skeletal muscle.
  • Successfully linked cellular electrophysiology (e.g., ion accumulation) to continuum mechanics.
  • Demonstrated the model's capability to represent muscle fiber grouping and motor unit recruitment.
  • Investigated the effect of homogenization on simulated muscle forces.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed framework enables novel simulation-based investigations of skeletal muscle.
  • The model can represent muscle behavior from motor-unit recruitment to force generation and fatigue.
  • This approach provides a powerful tool for understanding complex muscle dynamics and fatigue mechanisms.