Skeletal Muscles Lab Report

Physiology of Skeletal Muscles

L. D.G. Valerio, C. M. Villegas, R. H. Vito, L. R. Zamora

Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Santo Tomas, España, Manila, Philippines

Keywords

Skeletal Muscles, Twitch, Kymograph, Fatigue, Ringer’s solution

Summary

The experiment was conducted to be able to determine the effect of graded response, load, pules, frequency, tetanus and muscles fatigue on the contraction of the muscle, specifically the gastrocnemius, by doing the procedures and a series of experiments to get various data.

Introduction

First we ask the question, what is a kymograph? A kymograph is a device used for recording variations in pressure such as in sound waves, blood pressure and etc. by the trace

It records a phenomenon over time and keeps track of its changes. It has time intervals and it has its records on data. A kymograph is commonly translated into graphs. Usually the orientation of a kymograph on a graph is that the changes in pressure and motion lies on the X-axis and the time elapsed lies on the Y-axis. A kymograph can be horizontal or vertical. In the previous decades, a smoked paper was used as the recording sheet. Today, as we advance, we sometimes use sheets of graphing paper or plain paper. On some instances a manual procedure is done but since we already advanced in technologies, we now use software for

We first double-pithed a frog in order to immobilize the frog. Next, use a scalpel to cut the skin of the frog around the abdomen so as to peel the skin down and off the legs easily. Use a Ringer’s solution to keep the frog moist at all times. Glass probe was used to expose the sciatic nerve from between the thigh muscles on to the knee. A 25-cm piece of thread was slipped under the Achilles tendon at the heel of the frog to secure it. The gastrocnemius muscle of the frog was dissected away from the tibio-fibula bone while still being attached to the knee. The other parts such as the foot, thigh muscles and others were removed from the tibio-fibula except for the sciatic nerve and gastrocnemius. Bone shears was used to cut the tibio-fibula bond 8-10mm below the knee. The femur was cut close to the hip joint. The muscle left in the petri dish was moistened using the Frog Ringer’s until ready to