Muscle Contraction and Force: the Importance of an Ancillary Network, Nutrient Supply and Waste Removal

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Dagmar A. Brüggemann¹  Jens Risbo¹  Stefan G. Pierzynowski² 

[1] Department of Food Science, Faculty of Life Sciences, Copenhagen University, Frederiksberg C, Denmark. E-Mails:;Department of Cell & Organism Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. E-Mail:

关键词: Collagen;    muscle performance;    fatigue;    capillary network;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms9081472

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Muscle contraction studies often focus solely on myofibres and the proteins known to be involved in the processes of sarcomere shortening and cross-bridge cycling, but skeletal muscle also comprises a very elaborate ancillary network of capillaries, which not only play a vital role in terms of nutrient delivery and waste product removal, but are also tethered to surrounding fibres by collagen ”wires”. This paper therefore addresses aspects of the ancillary network of skeletal muscle at both a microscopic and functional level in order to better understand its role holistically as a considerable contributor to force transfer within muscular tissue.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2008 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).