ontraction
A Part I – The Tour
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, You are an intern working in the Atlanta, GA office of Dr. Priya Wayne, MD. Dr. Wayne is a specialist in rare
neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders. You’ve been working with Dr. Wayne for the last year and due to
this experience, you’ve gained a great deal of knowledge about the human body and muscle physiology. You’re
also a college student and working with Dr. Wayne has allowed you to gain first-hand experience with some of the
material that
you’re learning in your human physiology course. Just last week you had to turn in an assignment comparing
disorders of the neuromuscular junction. You learned all about several issues, including myasthenia gravis, sarin,
curare, botulism, and Eaton-Lambert syndrome.
Today a group of high school students is coming for a tour and Dr. Wayne has asked you to prepare some
information about muscles to present to the students. Specifically, Dr. Wayne has asked you to discuss the
neuromuscular junction (NMJ), skeletal muscle contraction, and explain some of the issues that can occur when
signaling between neurons and muscles does not go as planned.
Questions
Use the word bank to match the appropriate letter to the definitions/descriptions on the next page.
(a) Sodium (i) Synaptic vesicles
(b) Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nACh) (j) T-tubule
(c) Myosin (k) Sarcoplasmic reticulum
(d) Actin (l) Dihydropyridine receptor
(e) Acetylcholine (ACh) (m) Ryanodine receptor
(f) Depolarization (n) Synaptic terminal
(g) Motor end plate (o) Sarcolemma
(h) Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) (p) Sarcomere
*These four undergraduate students contributed equally to the creation of this case study and are listed in alphabetical order.
A Part I – The Tour
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t
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d
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M
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l
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C
, You are an intern working in the Atlanta, GA office of Dr. Priya Wayne, MD. Dr. Wayne is a specialist in rare
neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders. You’ve been working with Dr. Wayne for the last year and due to
this experience, you’ve gained a great deal of knowledge about the human body and muscle physiology. You’re
also a college student and working with Dr. Wayne has allowed you to gain first-hand experience with some of the
material that
you’re learning in your human physiology course. Just last week you had to turn in an assignment comparing
disorders of the neuromuscular junction. You learned all about several issues, including myasthenia gravis, sarin,
curare, botulism, and Eaton-Lambert syndrome.
Today a group of high school students is coming for a tour and Dr. Wayne has asked you to prepare some
information about muscles to present to the students. Specifically, Dr. Wayne has asked you to discuss the
neuromuscular junction (NMJ), skeletal muscle contraction, and explain some of the issues that can occur when
signaling between neurons and muscles does not go as planned.
Questions
Use the word bank to match the appropriate letter to the definitions/descriptions on the next page.
(a) Sodium (i) Synaptic vesicles
(b) Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nACh) (j) T-tubule
(c) Myosin (k) Sarcoplasmic reticulum
(d) Actin (l) Dihydropyridine receptor
(e) Acetylcholine (ACh) (m) Ryanodine receptor
(f) Depolarization (n) Synaptic terminal
(g) Motor end plate (o) Sarcolemma
(h) Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) (p) Sarcomere
*These four undergraduate students contributed equally to the creation of this case study and are listed in alphabetical order.