Caroline Maxwell
18 May 2014
Author: Gretchen Reynolds
Article Published: April 23, 2014
Summary: This article has to deal with why athletes feel muscle fatigue after working out. Scientist were not quite sure why the muscles would become weak, and then send a message to the brain that what is happening needs to stop. An experiment went on at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and they isolated a part of mouse muscle tissue, and observed the nerve cells in that. They saw that when the muscles contracted, ATP was released along with lactate and other acids. Scientists then put each individual substance in the mouse and there was no effect, but when all three were added at the same time, the cell responded. This then signaled to the brain that the muscles were tired. From this they tried it on people's thumbs. Again, they added the individual substances and the people did not feel anything. Then they added ATP, lactate and the acid together, and shortly there after, people felt their thumbs were heavy, puffy and tired. They concluded that muscles begin to fatigue after these substances start building up.
Connection: This unit we have learned all about muscles and their contractions. When the actin and myosin contract they release small amounts of ATP, which is another subject we learned about earlier in the year. ATP is the main energy source for the cells to function and do their jobs. ATP is needed in order for cells to contract. The nervous system also plays a role in when muscles contract, sending the original muscle to the cell so it can contact. The muscular and nervous systems are too the themes that we learned about in this unit.
Link: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/with-exercise-the-limits-of-no-pain-no-gain/?action=click&module=Search®ion=searchResults&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry579%23%2Fmuscle%2Bsystem%2F30days%2F
Do you know which acid along with the ATP and the lactate causes fatigue in the muscles?
ReplyDeleteWhat caused the thumbs to become "heavy, [and] puffy?" What some type of compound similar to histamine released, or was this simply the mixture of the three substances you mentioned?
ReplyDeleteAkhila, I have been looking around, and I have not been able to find other examples of other acids. I believe that it is mainly ATP and lactate, with a small amount of the extra acids.
ReplyDelete