Bones, Bones, Bones!

For the section of skeletal system we had to split into groups of about 4-5 people.  After that, we had to decide the section of the body we would like to memorize.  My group consisted of Carla, Gena, Bri, Cassidy, and myself.  Carla chose the midsection of the body such as the ribs and pelvis.  Gena had the inside of the skull.  Bri had the arms and fingers.  I chose the bones on the outside of the skull, thinking it would be easy.  After getting our assigned parts, I began looking at diagrams portraying certain parts of the skull and specific bones.  After looking at multiple diagrams, I realized the skull has a ton of different bones!  After about a day or two I started to get the hang of it and remember what certain bones were where.  The bones I had to memorize are displayed in this picture!

Out of all these bones, I only missed about four.
Overall, I learned that there are multiple different bones not only in the body, but in the skull alone.  I also learned not to wait last minute for memorizing certain bones! :)

Skeletal Muscle Fatigue-Eccentric Contractions and Muscle Damage

The muscle is stretched by outside forces or antagonist muscles frequently occur in normal conditions like walking down the stairs.  When these contractions are repeated by someone out of shape, they make muscles weak and a characteristic muscle pain and tenderness; which become known a day or so after the workout.  This type of damage to the muscle is linked with inflammation, hypercontracture of some fibers and protein loss from the damaged fibers.  This type of pain and weakness can be the cause of some muscle symptoms in muscle diseases.
**Fun Fact**-Skeletal muscle fibers from rats with heart failure are more liable to mechanical damage, which shows that these muscles are more easily damaged during eccentric contractions.

Eccentric muscle damage includes characteristic changes to the sarcomeres with over- or under-stretched sarcomeres and wavy Z-lines.  These are changes which have been explained by instability of sarcomeres in these situations.  Evidence also shows that increased resting may act as a stimulus for inflammation and reduce Ca^2+ transients during these contractions, which add to the decreased force.  A recent study has given researchers new information on possible early membrane damage after eccentric contractions.  Vacuoles which were attached to the t-tubules were examined after contractions. Their figure could be held back by blocking the Na^+-K^+ pump.  It was suggested that overstretched sarcomeres led to membrane tears, which allows the influx of ions like Ca^2+ and Na^+.  The T-tubular-associated vacuoles are also a common thing in the damage of muscles and disease.  Vacuoles and linked damage to t-tubules could hurt many cellular processes, such as, the action of exchangers and pumps in t-tubules, which can further hurt cellular dysfunction following the eccentric damage.

Overall, eccentric muscle damage can further damage other bodily processes if not taken care of in time. They are trying to find more and more things to cure this type of muscle damage.

Research Article:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/444388_5