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Microscopic Anatomy of Skeletal Muscles01:13

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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...
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Measurement of Maximum Isometric Force Generated by Permeabilized Skeletal Muscle Fibers
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Microstructural analysis of skeletal muscle force generation during aging.

Yantao Zhang1, Jiun-Shyan Chen1, Qizhi He1

  • 1Department of Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering
|December 11, 2019
PubMed
Summary

Human aging reduces skeletal muscle force, especially during shortening contractions. Increased connective tissue stiffness explains this age-related decline, while eccentric contractions remain less affected. This study models muscle microstructure to understand these changes.

Keywords:
agingconnective tissueforce generationmicrostructurenumerical simulationreproducing kernel particle methodskeletal muscle

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Area of Science:

  • Biomechanics
  • Skeletal Muscle Physiology
  • Computational Biology

Background:

  • Human aging causes a decline in skeletal muscle force generation.
  • Age-related changes in muscle fiber and extracellular matrix (ECM) properties are implicated, but the differential force loss during concentric versus eccentric contractions is not fully understood.
  • Existing models often neglect microstructural details and tissue material volume fractions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To numerically investigate the mechanisms of age-related skeletal muscle force reduction.
  • To quantitatively assess how microstructural changes, specifically in muscle fibers and ECM, contribute to age-related force loss.
  • To explain the differential force reduction observed during concentric and eccentric contractions.

Main Methods:

  • A fiber-level honeycomb-like microstructure model was constructed using a pixel-based Reproducing Kernel Particle Method (RKPM).
  • The model explicitly represented muscle fibers and the ECM, allowing for smooth transitions in material properties.
  • Simulations were performed to assess force generation under varying microstructural properties representative of aging.

Main Results:

  • Increased stiffness of passive muscle tissue materials was found to reduce force generation during concentric contractions.
  • This increased stiffness, however, helped maintain force generation capability during eccentric contractions.
  • The study quantitatively linked microstructural changes to functional deficits in muscle force production.

Conclusions:

  • The proposed RKPM-based microstructural model effectively simulates cellular-scale skeletal muscle physiology.
  • Age-associated increases in connective tissue stiffness and volume fraction are key contributors to reduced concentric force generation.
  • The model elucidates why eccentric contraction force is less affected by aging compared to concentric contraction force.