Cattle Muscle Analysis

By looking at the fetal pig and its muscle structure, researchers and individuals are able to gain a better understanding of what human muscles look like, where they are located, and how they function. The muscles that were labeled in the dissection are important factors in the movement of the individual. The muscles work together though antagonism. Antagonism works when one muscle, such as the extensor carpi radialis contracts, and the flexor carpi radialis relaxes, allowing the hand to extend. These muscles are attached to each other by ligaments. The muscles are then attached to the bones, and thus the skeletal system, by tendons (Farabee 2001) (Allen and Harper 2013). All of the muscles have both origin and insertion points to enable them to work together and perform their jobs correctly. The muscles are attached to the origin by tendons much of the time. The origin is fixed and allows for the movement of the insertion point towards the origin, therefore enabling the movement of the body part between the origin and insertion points (Allen and Harper 2013). This movement is shown with the masseter muscle. The origins are the zygomatic bone and arch and it is attached to the insertion point on the mandibular ramus and angle (Marieb and Hoehn 2013). When the masseter contracts, it pulls the mandible upwards. Without this interaction, humans would not be able to chew their food (Allen and Harper 2013). These muscles and their proper interactions with one another, bones, and cartilage, are crucial to the normal routines and activities of humans. Muscular diseases are among the numerous items that can inhibit muscles from functioning properly or even functioning at all. Some of these muscular diseases are inherited, such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This disease is prominent in males and causes the atrophying of the cardiac and skeletal muscles that progresses rapidly. The first signs primarily are recognized in early childhood and the majority of individuals only live to be in their twenties. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a recessive disease inherited through the X-chromosome (Duchenne 2015). The gene for dystrophin on the chromosome is mutated (Duchenne 2014). Males are more likely to inherit the disease because they only have one X-chromosome instead of the two that women have. For a woman to have the disease they would have to have the mutated gene in both X-chromosomes. Women that are carriers, or only have one affected chromosome, may show some of the symptoms, but much milder …show more content…
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