Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The action potential passes along the cell membrane causing the cell to contract, therefore the activity of the sinoatrial node results in a resting heart rate of roughly 60–100 beats per minute. All cardiac muscle cells are electrically linked to one another, by intercalated discs which allow the action potential to pass from one cell to the ...
As with skeletal muscles the heart can increase in size and efficiency with exercise. [1] Thus endurance athletes such as marathon runners may have a heart that has hypertrophied by up to 40%. [ 3 ] : 1063–64 The difference between maximum and minimum cardiac outputs is known as the cardiac reserve and this measures the residual capacity to ...
T-tubules (transverse tubules) are extensions of the cell membrane that penetrate into the center of skeletal and cardiac muscle cells.With membranes that contain large concentrations of ion channels, transporters, and pumps, T-tubules permit rapid transmission of the action potential into the cell, and also play an important role in regulating cellular calcium concentration.
The heart muscle may become inflamed in a condition called myocarditis, [46] most commonly caused by a viral infection [47] but sometimes caused by the body's own immune system. [48] Heart muscle can also be damaged by drugs such as alcohol, long standing high blood pressure or hypertension, or persistent abnormal heart racing. [49]
Coronary arteries supply oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. Cardiac veins then drain away the blood after it has been deoxygenated. Because the rest of the body, and most especially the brain , needs a steady supply of oxygenated blood that is free of all but the slightest interruptions, the heart is required to function continuously.
In some types of neurons, the entire up-and-down cycle takes place in a few thousandths of a second. In muscle cells, a typical action potential lasts about a fifth of a second. In plant cells, an action potential may last three seconds or more. [4] The electrical properties of a cell are determined by the structure of its membrane.
Most vessels of the microcirculation are lined by flattened cells of the endothelium and many of them are surrounded by contractile cells called pericytes.The endothelium provides a smooth surface for the flow of blood and regulates the movement of water and dissolved materials in the interstitial plasma between the blood and the tissues.
In a healthy heart all activities and rests during each individual cardiac cycle, or heartbeat, are initiated and orchestrated by signals of the heart's electrical conduction system, which is the "wiring" of the heart that carries electrical impulses throughout the body of cardiomyocytes, the specialized muscle cells of the heart.