PNB 2265 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Cardiac Skeleton, Cardiac Muscle Cell, Alpha Motor Neuron

• School: UConn
• Department: Physiology and Neurobiology
• Course: PNB 2265
• Professor: Kristen Kimball

Document Summary

The path of blood going to and from the heart: circulation of heart. If someone has bypass surgery, they are trying to bypass some of the muscles in our hearts: come off aorta. Coronary veins: deoxygenated blood into right atrium. Loss of blood to the tissue makes a heart attack. The cardiac muscle attaches to a fibrous skeleton. Fibrous ct: not excitable, can"t conduct electricity, so the node has to start the charge: support, elasticity, prevent overexpansion, electrical insulation. Create the atrial and ventricular syncytia: desmosomes: buttons on pants. Physical connection at points of stress, still bend: tight junctions. Tightly together, not much movement: gap junctions. Pores that connect membranes of two adjacent cells. Always know what is going on with your neighbor. Things can spread through gaps, coordinates the movements. No motor neurons, generates its own ap, so gap junctions help to coordinate contractions. Cells are so coordinated that every single one behaves together.