Essay On Skeletal Muscle

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Introduction
This report will explore the structure and function of skeletal muscle within the human body. There are three muscle classifications: smooth (looks smooth), cardiac (looks striated) and skeletal (looks striated). Smooth muscle is found within blood vessels, the gut and the intestines; it assists the movement of substances by contracting and relaxing, this is an involuntary effort. The heart is composed of cardiac muscle, which contracts rhythmically nonstop for the entire duration of a person’s life and again is an involuntary movement of the body. The main focus of this report is on skeletal muscle and the movement produced which is inflicted by conscious thought unless there is a potentially harmful stimulus and then reaction is due to reflex, as the body naturally wants to protect itself. Skeletal muscle is found attached to bones and when they contract and relax they produce movement, there is a specific process that the muscle fibers go through to allow this to occur.

Function of Skeletal Muscle in Relation to Other Body Systems.

Temperature Regulation
The body has specific ways of controlling the internal temperature: if the body is too cold then involuntary shivering occurs this causes the skeletal muscles to contract therefore producing heat. When conscious movement occurs the muscles again contract and relax which generate heat to warm the body up. Another way the body increases the temperature unconsciously the hairs all over the body stand on end causing a layer of air to be trapped, which acts like an insulator. When the body is too warm sweat is produced from pores in the skin, as this liquid sits on the skin it slowly evaporates causing the body temperature to drop, however if ...

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...so be no definition of the body either as the muscles would have no tension in them.
Within skeletal muscle there are extremely small structures that form the muscle and allow contractions and movement to occur (epimysium, perimysium, endomysium, fascicles, fiber, sarcomere, sarcoplasmic reticulum and t tubules). These structures all play a role in protecting, connecting and transporting substances throughout the muscle fibers. They are also the main contributors to movement.
For muscles to contract then there must be a presence of calcium within the fibers as it connects with troponin protein and orders tropomyosin to clear the binding sites to allow myosin to attach to these sites, which allows the muscle to contract and produces movement. Without all of these elements working in sync then the function of skeletal muscle would no longer work or even exist.

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