1. Our heart is made up of muscle tissues (smooth and cardiac muscles). Explain how these muscles work in our heart and how to take care of it to sustain life.
Cardiac muscle tissue works to keep your heart pumping through involuntary movements. This is one feature that differentiates it from skeletal muscle tissue, which you can control.
It does this through specialized cells called pacemaker cells. These control the contractions of your heart. Your nervous system sends signals to pacemaker cells that prompt them to either speed up or slow down your heart rate.
Your pacemaker cells are connected to other cardiac muscle cells, allowing them to pass along signals. This results in a wave of contractions of your cardiac muscle, which creates your heartbeat. Learn more about how your heart works.
What are heart muscles made of?
Intercalated discs
Intercalated discs are small connections that join cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) to each other.
Gap junctions
Gap junctions are part of the intercalated discs. When one cardiac muscle cell is stimulated to contract, a gap junction transfers the stimulation to the next cardiac cell. This allows the muscle to contract in a coordinated way.
Desmosomes
Like gap junctions, desmosomes are also found within intercalated discs. They help hold the cardiac muscle fibers together during a contraction.
Nucleus
The nucleus is the “control center” of a cell. It contains all of the cell’s genetic material. While skeletal muscle cells can have multiple nuclei, cardiac muscle cells typically only have one nucleus..
What is cardiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy is one of the main conditions that can affect your cardiac muscle tissue. It’s a disease that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood.
There are several different types of cardiomyopathy:
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The cardiac muscles enlarge and thicken for no apparent reason. It’s usually found in the lower chambers of the heart, called the ventricles.
Dilated cardiomyopathy. The ventricles become larger and weaker. This makes it hard for them to pump, which makes the rest of your heart work harder to pump blood.
Restrictive cardiomyopathy. The ventricles become stiff, which prevents them from filling to their full volume.
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. The cardiac muscle tissue of your right ventricle is replaced with fatty or fiber-rich tissue. This can lead to arrhythmia, which refers to an abnormal heart rate or rhythm.
Not all cases of cardiomyopathy produce symptoms. However, it can sometimes cause:
trouble breathing, especially when exercising
fatigue
swollen ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, or neck veins
It’s usually hard to pinpoint the cause of cardiomyopathy. But several things can increase your risk of developing it, including:
a family history of cardiomyopathy or heart failure
high blood pressure
obesity
heavy alcohol consumption
use of certain recreational drugs
past heart attacks or heart infectionsThe heart’s chambers
The heart’s four chambers function as a double-sided pump, with an upper and continuous lower chamber on each side of the heart.
The heart’s four chambers are:
Right atrium. This chamber receives venous oxygen-depleted blood that has already circulated around through the body, not including the lungs, and pumps it into the right ventricle.
Right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps blood from the right atrium to the pulmonary artery. The pulmonary artery sends the deoxygenated blood to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen in exchange for carbon dioxide.
Left atrium. This chamber receives oxygenated blood from the pulmonary veins of the lungs and pumps it to the left ventricle.
Left ventricle. With the thickest muscle mass of all the chambers, the left ventricle is the hardest pumping part of the heart, as it pumps blood that flows to the heart and rest of the body other than the lungs.
The heart’s two atria are both located on the top of the heart. They are responsible for receiving blood from your veins.
The heart’s two ventricles are located in the bottom of the heart. They are responsible for pumping blood into your arteries.
Your atria and ventricles contract to make your heart beat and to pump the blood through each chamber. Your heart chambers fill up with blood before each beat, and the contraction pushes the blood out into the next chamber. The contractions are triggered by electrical pulses that start from the sinus node, also called the sinoatrial node (SA node), located in the tissue of your right atrium.
The pulses then travel through your heart to the atrioventricular node, also called the AV node, located near the center of the heart between the atria and the ventricles. These electrical impulses keep your blood flowing in proper rhythm.
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Answer:
How does it function?
Cardiac muscle tissue works to keep your heart pumping through involuntary movements. This is one feature that differentiates it from skeletal muscle tissue, which you can control.
It does this through specialized cells called pacemaker cells. These control the contractions of your heart. Your nervous system sends signals to pacemaker cells that prompt them to either speed up or slow down your heart rate.
Your pacemaker cells are connected to other cardiac muscle cells, allowing them to pass along signals. This results in a wave of contractions of your cardiac muscle, which creates your heartbeat. Learn more about how your heart works.
What are heart muscles made of?
Intercalated discs
Intercalated discs are small connections that join cardiac muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) to each other.
Gap junctions
Gap junctions are part of the intercalated discs. When one cardiac muscle cell is stimulated to contract, a gap junction transfers the stimulation to the next cardiac cell. This allows the muscle to contract in a coordinated way.
Desmosomes
Like gap junctions, desmosomes are also found within intercalated discs. They help hold the cardiac muscle fibers together during a contraction.
Nucleus
The nucleus is the “control center” of a cell. It contains all of the cell’s genetic material. While skeletal muscle cells can have multiple nuclei, cardiac muscle cells typically only have one nucleus..
What is cardiomyopathy?
Cardiomyopathy is one of the main conditions that can affect your cardiac muscle tissue. It’s a disease that makes it harder for your heart to pump blood.
There are several different types of cardiomyopathy:
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The cardiac muscles enlarge and thicken for no apparent reason. It’s usually found in the lower chambers of the heart, called the ventricles.
Dilated cardiomyopathy. The ventricles become larger and weaker. This makes it hard for them to pump, which makes the rest of your heart work harder to pump blood.
Restrictive cardiomyopathy. The ventricles become stiff, which prevents them from filling to their full volume.
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. The cardiac muscle tissue of your right ventricle is replaced with fatty or fiber-rich tissue. This can lead to arrhythmia, which refers to an abnormal heart rate or rhythm.
Not all cases of cardiomyopathy produce symptoms. However, it can sometimes cause:
trouble breathing, especially when exercising
fatigue
swollen ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, or neck veins
It’s usually hard to pinpoint the cause of cardiomyopathy. But several things can increase your risk of developing it, including:
a family history of cardiomyopathy or heart failure
high blood pressure
obesity
heavy alcohol consumption
use of certain recreational drugs
past heart attacks or heart infectionsThe heart’s chambers
The heart’s four chambers function as a double-sided pump, with an upper and continuous lower chamber on each side of the heart.
The heart’s four chambers are:
Right atrium. This chamber receives venous oxygen-depleted blood that has already circulated around through the body, not including the lungs, and pumps it into the right ventricle.
Right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps blood from the right atrium to the pulmonary artery. The pulmonary artery sends the deoxygenated blood to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen in exchange for carbon dioxide.
Left atrium. This chamber receives oxygenated blood from the pulmonary veins of the lungs and pumps it to the left ventricle.
Left ventricle. With the thickest muscle mass of all the chambers, the left ventricle is the hardest pumping part of the heart, as it pumps blood that flows to the heart and rest of the body other than the lungs.
The heart’s two atria are both located on the top of the heart. They are responsible for receiving blood from your veins.
The heart’s two ventricles are located in the bottom of the heart. They are responsible for pumping blood into your arteries.
Your atria and ventricles contract to make your heart beat and to pump the blood through each chamber. Your heart chambers fill up with blood before each beat, and the contraction pushes the blood out into the next chamber. The contractions are triggered by electrical pulses that start from the sinus node, also called the sinoatrial node (SA node), located in the tissue of your right atrium.
The pulses then travel through your heart to the atrioventricular node, also called the AV node, located near the center of the heart between the atria and the ventricles. These electrical impulses keep your blood flowing in proper rhythm.
Explanation:
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