Muscle Cell Function and the Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
The ambient air we breathe in contains only 21% oxygen; the
air is not ‘just’ oxygen. It contains typically 78% nitrogen, 21%
oxygen and the 1% remaining is a blend of carbon, helium, argon and hydrogen.
As an interesting fact, the 1% are gasses that surround the earth and
the closer to sea level we are breathing, the
higher the percentage of oxygen. Other factors affect ambient air
as well such as the pollution level.
In a general statement, what we do as humans: manufacturing processes,
transportation and chemicals we use, etc., affect the quality of the air we breathe.
What if instead of decreasing air quality with our modernization efforts,
we increase our breathing air quality by increasing the purity and
concentration of oxygen we take in? What would the effect of
taking in 100% oxygen do? Would muscles work better, heal faster?
After all, is not more better?
Muscle fiber contractions depend on excitation-contraction
coupling and occur in a sequence of events.
EC coupling in its simplistic form is an action potential that triggers
a myocyte to contract, followed by subsequent relaxation.
This is where the muscle cell filaments slide along each other,
expanding and contracting the cell.
The sarcoplasmic reticulum is a membrane structure
found not only within muscle cells but it also resembles SR in other
cells where its main function is to store the calcium ions needed for
muscle cell functions including but not limited to manufacturing
secreted proteins, integrating proteins in the cell membrane and facilitating glycosylation.
Orthop Res Traumatol Open J. 2019; 4(1): 6-9. doi: 10.17140/ORTOJ-4-115
