Muscle Contraction Lab Report

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Prior to intubation for a surgical procedure, the anesthesiologist administered a single dose of the neuromuscular blocking agent, succinylcholine, to a 23-year-old female to provide muscular relaxation during surgery and to facilitate the insertion of the endotracheal tube. Following this, the inhalation anesthetic was administered and the surgical procedure completed.
In the beginning phases of muscle contraction, a “cocked” motor neuron in the spinal cord is activated to form a neuromuscular junction with each muscle fiber when it begins branching out to each cell. An action potential is passed down the nerve, releasing calcium, which simultaneously stimulates the release of acetylcholine onto the sarcolemma. As long as calcium and ATP are present, the contraction will continue. Acetylcholine then initiates the resting potential’s change under the motor end plate, stimulates the action potential, and passes along both directions on the surface of the muscle fiber. Sodium ions rush into the cell through the open channels to depolarize the sarcolemma. The depolarization spreads. The potassium channels open while the sodium channels close off, which repolarizes the entire cell. The action potential is dispersed throughout the cell through the transverse tubule, causing the sarcoplasmic reticulum to release …show more content…

So you could find a multitude of acetylcholine in each synaptic vessel. The vesicles' contents are then released into the synaptic cleft, and about half of the acetylcholine molecules are hydrolyzed by acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that causes rapid hydrolysis of acetylcholine. But soon, there are so many acetylcholine molecules that this enzyme cannot break them all down, and the remaining half reach the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on the postsynaptic side of the

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