Anaesthesia Fundamentals | Physiology | Cardiac Muscle Contraction 1

Cardiac Muscle Contraction 1
Session Overview
Description
This session describes the ultrastructure of cardiac muscle cells and the organisation of the sarcomere.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Describe the features and organization of the cardiac syncytium and cardiomyocytes
• Describe the features and functions of gap junctions, the sarcomere, sarcoplasmic reticulum and transverse tubules
• Describe the structure of actin and myosin

Knowledge of the structure of cardiac muscle is essential for an understanding of myocardial excitation-contraction coupling, and the effects of neurohumoral mechanisms, drugs and disease.

This session covers:

• The macroscopic organization of the myocardium
• The ultrastructure of cardiac muscle cells, i.e. cardiomyocytes:

• The sarcomere
• The sarcolemma, transverse tubules and associated proteins
• The sarcoplasmic reticulum
• The structure contractile proteins

Excitation-contraction coupling and the factors that influence cardiac muscle contraction and relaxation are covered in session: Cardiac Muscle Contraction 2 001-0637.