Excitable Tissues
Excitable Tissues
Excitable Tissues
Outline
• Excitable tissues
• Morphology of the nerve cell
• Functional organization of neurons
• Membrane potentials
• Excitation & conduction along the nerve
• Nerve types & functions
• Muscles
• Communication in excitable tissues
Excitable tissues
• Excitable Tissues = electrically active tissues
– Nervous tissue
– Muscle
• All cells have electrical properties
• In the resting state, these properties are due to the
electrical properties of the phospholipid bilayer.
– The hydrophobic core of the phospholipid bilayer is an
insulator.
• Electrical charge does not flow freely across a bilayer.
• An electrical gradient can exist across the membrane; the inside
of a cell can have a different voltage (electrical potential) than the
outside of a cell.
Excitable tissues
• An excitable cell reacts to stimuli by altering
its membrane characteristics
• Two types
– Nerve cells:- Transmit and modify impulses within
the nervous system
– Muscle cells:- Contract either in response to nerve
stimuli or autonomously
Nerve cells (the neuron)
• Basic structural and functional units of the nervous
system.
– Cannot divide by mitosis.
• Respond to physical and chemical stimuli.
• Produce and conduct electrochemical impulses.
• Release chemical regulators (neurotransmitters)
• Integrate and transmision of nerve impulses
• Nerve:
– Bundle of axons located outside CNS.
• Most composed of both motor and sensory fibers.
Basic structure of the neuron
NERVE CELL:
• The neurons are the basic
building blocks of the nervous
system, their axons may or
may not be myelinated
• The myelin sheath is produced
by the Schwan cells. It
envelops the axon except at
the ends & the nodes of
Ranvier
• The impulse is conducted
faster in myelinated than
unmyelinated nerves.
The Nerve cell
• Cell body (perikaryon):
– “Nutrition center”
– Cell bodies within CNS clustered into nuclei, and in PNS in ganglia
• Dendrites:
– Provide receptive area
– Transmit electrical impulses to cell body
• Axon:
– Conducts impulses away from cell body
Neurons
Schwann cells
• Provide insulation to
axons
• Increase conduction
velocities of the axons
(saltatory conduction)
• One Schwann cell can
provide myelin to over
ten axons
Functional Classification of Neurons
• Golgi type I:
– Long axons; cell bodies in the central nervous
system and axons move to the peripheral organs
• Golgi type II:
– Short axons; found in the cerebral cortex and
spinal cord
Special Properties of Neurons
• Excitability--Action Potential in Axons
• Conduction--Action Potential in Axons
• Transmission--Synapses, Electrical & Chemical
• Integration--Postsynaptic Cell
• Plasticity—Able to change in form and
environment in response to alternations in
environment
Resting Membrane Potential
Definition: it is the potential difference recorded across the
cell membrane at rest
Causes:
• 80% caused by selective permeability of the cell
membrane
The K+ diffuses out the cell & Na+ diffuses inside the cell
according to concentration gradient.
The K+ permeability is 50-75 folds more than Na+
• 20% is caused by the Na+ - K+ pump an active process
that needs energy taken from ATP. This is very important
to maintain the concentration gradient across the cell
membrane
Resting Membrane Potential (Vr)
Membrane Potential
• The membrane potential is the difference in
electrical potential (voltage) between the
inside and outside membrane surfaces under
resting conditions
• Cells have an excess of negative charges at the
inside surface of the cell membrane and
exhibit a negative membrane potential at rest
Potentials
• All potentials result from ions moving across
membranes.
• Two forces on ions: Diffusion (from high to low
concentration); Electrical (toward opposite charge
and away from like charge).
• K+ make - potentials; Na+ make + potentials.
Resting Potential Results from Passive K+
Channels and EK+
-65 mV
• AP is produced by
an increase in Na+
permeability.
• After short delay,
increase in K+
permeability.
Resting and Action Potentials
Properties of Action Potentials
– "All or none"
• Generation of an action potential is determined solely
by the ability of the stimulus to cause the cell to reach
threshold
• If the threshold potential is reached, an action
potential is generated; if it is not reached, no action
potential is generated
• Regardless of stimulus intensity or energy content,
the action potential will have the same amplitude
– Frequency
• Increasing stimulus intensity increases the frequency
of action potential generation.
Properties of Action Potentials
– Refractory periods
• During refractory periods, the cell is unable to generate an action
potential.
• Prevent tetany
• Absolute refractory period
– An action potential cannot be generated, regardless of stimulus intensity.
– This occurs during the depolarization phase of the action potential and is
due to closure of the sodium channel inactivation gates
• Relative refractory period
– Only a stimulus with intensity much greater than threshold can stimulate
another action potential
– This occurs during the repolarization phase and is due to the inactivated
conformation of the voltage-gated sodium channels
– The conductance of K+ is higher than in the resting state, so the
membrane potential becomes more negative. Relative refractory period:
only much larger than normal stimulus intensity can generate an action
potential; occurs during repolarization phase
Refractory Periods
• Absolute refractory
period:
– Axon membrane is
incapable of producing
another AP.
• Relative refractory period:
– VG ion channel shape alters
at the molecular level.
– VG K+ channels are open.
– Axon membrane can
produce another action
potential, but requires
stronger stimulus.
Propagation of action potentials
• Propagation of the action potential requires a
system that regenerates the action potential
along the axon
• Conduction velocity is increased by increased
fiber size and myelination
– Dependent on the magnitude of the depolarizing
current
• Myelinated nerves exhibit saltatory conduction in
which the action potential skips from node to
node where the voltage-gated Na+ channels
congregate
Conduction in an Unmyelinated Axon
• Cable spread of
depolarization with influx
of Na+ depolarizes the
adjacent region
membrane, propagating
the AP.
• Conduction rate is slow.
– AP must be produced at
every fraction of
micrometer.
• Occurs in 1 direction;
previous region is in its
refractory period.
Conduction in Myelinated Axon
• Synapses
–Chemical
–Electrical
• Neuro-muscular junction (NMJ)
The Synapse
• Functional connection between a neuron and another
neuron or effector cell.
• Transmission in one direction only.
• Axon of first (presynaptic) to second (postsynaptic)
neuron
• Synaptic transmission is through a chemical gated
channel
• Presynaptic terminal (bouton) releases a
neurotransmitter (NT)
Synaptic transmission
Physiologic anatomy of the synapse (from Guyton & Hall)
Classification of synapses
• Anatomical
– Axosomatic (axon to soma/ cell body)
– Axodendritic (axon to dendrtie)
– Axoaxonal (axon to axon)
• Functional
– Electrical synapse
» Continuity provided by gap junctions between the two neurons
» Minimal delay, bidirctional
» E.g. cardiac muscle, intestinal smooth muscle, epithelial cells of the eye lens
– Chemical
» Signal transmitted by release of a chemical transmitter
» No continuity between the pre and post synaptic neurons
Types of synapses
Electrical Synapse
• Impulses can be
regenerated without
interruption in adjacent
cells.
• Gap junctions:
– Adjacent cells electrically
coupled through a channel.
– Each gap junction is
composed of 12 connexin
proteins.
• Examples:
– Smooth and cardiac
muscles, brain, and glial
cells.
The Chemical Synapse
• Terminal bouton is
separated from
postsynaptic cell by
synaptic cleft
• NTs are released from
synaptic vesicles
• Vesicles fuse with axon
membrane and NT
released by exocytosis
• Amount of NTs released
depends upon frequency
of AP
Synaptic Transmission
• EPSP (excitatory
postsynaptic
potential):
– Depolarization.
• IPSP (inhibitory
postsynaptic
potential):
– Hyperpolarization
The neuromuscular junction
• Motor end plate
• Composed of
– Presynaptic motor neuron; Synaptic cleft; Postsynaptic
membrane
The Neuromuscular juction
• The nerve fiber forms a complex of branching
nerve terminals that invaginate into the
surface of the muscle fiber but lie outside the
muscle fiber plasma membrane
• The entire structure is called the motor end
plate
• It is covered by one or more Schwann cells
that insulate it from the surrounding fluids
Neurotransmitter
• Signal transmission controlled by a
neurotrasmitter
• Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter at the
NMJ
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