This section summarises some of the available literature concerning the operation of muscles and nerves. All skeletal muscles comprise groups or bundles of smaller muscle fibres; these muscle fibres are of many different shapes and sizes depending on the muscle in question. Cylindrical gamma shaped muscle fibres are comparatively short compared with, say, flagelliform or laneolate muscle fibres...

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of muscle afferents and central command in regulating sympathetic nerve activity during static exercise in humans. In 20 healthy subjects, we recorded heart rate, arterial pressure, and efferent sympathetic nerve activity in the leg during arm exercise. Microelectrodes were inserted percutaneously into a fascicle of the peroneal nerve ...

Introduction: To obtain maximal benefit from dynamic cardiomyoplasty, stimulation parameters of the cardiomyostimulator need to be optimized. The two components for optimization include the muscle channel and the synchronization channel. This study looks at the issue of timing muscle contraction to ventricular contraction. Specifically, we compared 2 methods of obtaining optimal synchronization...

In this study, we compared the potencies of diosgenin, a plant-derived sapogenin structurally similar to estrogen and progesterone, on vascular smooth muscle functions ranging from contraction and migration to apoptosis. The effects of diosgenin on vascular smooth muscle cell viability and migration were measured using a primary mouse aortic smooth muscle cell culture. The effects of diosgenin ...

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a fuel sensor in skeletal muscle with multiple downstream signaling targets that may be triggered by increases in intracellular Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)]). The purpose of this study was to determine whether increases in intracellular [Ca(2+)] induced by caffeine act solely via AMPKα(2) and whether AMPKα(2) is essential to increase glucose uptake, fatt...

A two-compartment, flat-sheet preparation of rat colon was devised, which enabled exclusive measurement of longitudinal muscle activity during the ascending and descending phases of the peristaltic reflex. A previous study using longitudinal muscle strips revealed the operation of an integrated neuronal circuit consisting of somatostatin, opioid, and VIP/pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating p...

High-load isometric exercise is considered an effective countermeasure against muscle atrophy, but therapeutic electrical stimulation for muscle atrophy is often performed without loading. In the present study, we investigated the combined effectiveness of electrical stimulation and high-load isometric contraction in preventing muscle atrophy induced by hindlimb unloading. Electrical stimulatio...

[Purpose] This study examined the changes in the thickness of the deep cervical flexor according to the contraction intensity of the masticatory muscle during deep cervical flexor training. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty healthy adults were randomly selected and the thicknesses of their longus colli and sternocleidomastoid were measured with ultrasound when the masticatory muscle contracted duri...