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Q: Rigor mortis occurs at death due to a lack of?
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Is it possible for a cat to be dead but not be stiff even after 15 hours?

Yes, although this would be rare. Rigor mortis is caused by muscle contraction that cannot be relaxed due to lack of ATP within the muscle cells. If the muscles were not able to contract after death - such as with hypocalcemia - there would be a lack of rigor mortis.


Rigor mortis occurs because?

Lack of O2 and blood being provided to the bones


Why does rigor mortis go away?

They don't. It occurs over the first 36 hours after death. Immediately after death the body is limp. With time it becomes increasingly rigid due to lack of ATP and build up of lactic acid.


How long before livor mortis sets in?

Rigor Mortis, a stiffening of the muscles, usually starts to take place at around 3 hours after someone is dead with full rigor occurring at about 12 hours after death. After the 12 hour mark the rigor slowly ceases and at around 72 hours rigor disappears.


Why do you tense up when you die?

Your body doesn't tense up. If your dead, why would your muscles start contracting? Your muscle cells are dead, so they wouldn't function, unless it gets electrocuted.The above answer is incorrect - your skeletal muscles do, in fact contract after death but the condition is temporary, beginning a few hours after death and continuing for about 3 days, at which time the muscles again relax. This condition is called rigor mortis and is one of three body conditions used in determining the time of death, the other two being algor mortis (the cooling of the body), and livor mortis (the settling of the blood to the lowest point of the body).Rigor mortis occurs due to the very complex physiology of the muscle system and how the muscles are able to move in the first place. This cannot be explained effectively in a paragraph or two, but briefly has to do with the lack of blood flow to the muscles after death, and the absence of signals from the brain.


What do muscle fibers need to reset the myosin heads?

ATP binds myosin, allowing it to release actin and be in the weak binding state (a lack of ATP makes this step impossible, resulting in the rigor state characteristic of rigor mortis). The myosin then hydrolyzes the ATP and uses the energy to move into the "cocked back" conformation.


When a person dies rigor mortis sets in as atp synthesis ceases why does the lack of atp in muscle cells cause the muscles to become rigid?

The answer is that muscles use ATP to relax, allowing the next part of the contraction process to occur. After death, a lack of energy causes a failure of muscle relaxation on a microsopic level and so a stiffness. Rigor Mortis is caused by lack of ATP which causes tight binding of myosin 2 heads to actin. This doesn't last long, however, as the muscles quickly decompose and become soft again.


What is the medical term meaning hardness?

There are two types of muscular hardness. One is when you strain the muscles through physical work they increase in size and strength. This is called hypertrophy. The other type of muscle hardness is when muscles become hard soon after death due to lack of circulation. This is referred to as rigor mortis.


When a person dies rigor Mortis sets in as ATP synthesis ceases. Explain why the lack of ATP in muscle cells would cause the muscle to become rigid rather than limp soon after death.?

This question is straight out of the physiology and anatomyy book clinical #7 pg. 219 lol if you look up rigor mortis itll give you a better answer but this is what i have hope it helps... when a body dies stored calcium leaks and calcium pumps no longer funtion, so the exessive calcium causes actin and myosin filaments of the muscle fibers to remain linked, which stiffens the whole body until the muscle begins to decomposeFrom wikipedia.org:After death, respiration in organisms ceases to occur, depleting the corpse of oxygen used in the making of ATP. ATP is no longer provided to operate the SERCA pumps in the membrane of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which pump calcium ions into the terminal cisternae.[1] This causes calcium ions to diffuse from the area of higher concentration (in the terminal cisternae and extracellular fluid) to an area of lower concentration (in the sarcomere), binding with troponin and allowing for crossbridging to occur between myosin and actin proteins. [2]Unlike normal muscle contractions, the body is unable to complete the cycle and release the coupling between the myosin and actin, creating a perpetual state of muscular contraction, until the breakdown of muscle tissue by digestive enzymes during decomposition.[1][3]Muscle rigidity after death is termed "rigor mortis" and it is a result of of calcium leaking from dead muscle cells...this ion results in contraction of the muscle simply "by default," but since they are dead there is no further progression or uncontraction...the muscles remain contracted and therefore we see rigor in corpses.


When a person dies rigor mortis sets in as ATP synthesis ceases Explain why the lack of ATP in muscle cells would cause the muscles to become rigid rather than limp soon after death?

This question is straight out of the physiology and anatomyy book clinical #7 pg. 219 lol if you look up rigor mortis itll give you a better answer but this is what i have hope it helps... when a body dies stored calcium leaks and calcium pumps no longer funtion, so the exessive calcium causes actin and myosin filaments of the muscle fibers to remain linked, which stiffens the whole body until the muscle begins to decomposeFrom wikipedia.org:After death, respiration in organisms ceases to occur, depleting the corpse of oxygen used in the making of ATP. ATP is no longer provided to operate the SERCA pumps in the membrane of the sarcoplasmic reticulum, which pump calcium ions into the terminal cisternae.[1] This causes calcium ions to diffuse from the area of higher concentration (in the terminal cisternae and extracellular fluid) to an area of lower concentration (in the sarcomere), binding with troponin and allowing for crossbridging to occur between myosin and actin proteins. [2]Unlike normal muscle contractions, the body is unable to complete the cycle and release the coupling between the myosin and actin, creating a perpetual state of muscular contraction, until the breakdown of muscle tissue by digestive enzymes during decomposition.[1][3]Muscle rigidity after death is termed "rigor mortis" and it is a result of of calcium leaking from dead muscle cells...this ion results in contraction of the muscle simply "by default," but since they are dead there is no further progression or uncontraction...the muscles remain contracted and therefore we see rigor in corpses.


What happens to your body after you die?

Heart stops beating and/or lungs stop breathing. Body cells no longer receive supplies of blood and oxygen. Blood drains from capillaries in the upper surfaces and collects in the blood vessels in the lower surfaces. Upper surfaces of the body become pale and the lower surfaces become dark. Cells cease aerobic respiration, and are unable to generate the energy molecules needed to maintain normal muscle biochemistry. Calcium ions leak into muscle cells preventing muscle relaxation. Muscles stiffen and remain stiff(rigor mortis) until they begin to decompose. Rigor mortis refers to the state of a body after death, in which the muscles become stiff. It commences after around 3 hours, reaching maximum stiffness after 12 hours, and gradually dissipates until approximately 72 hours after death. Rigor mortis occurs due to changes in the physiology of muscles when aerobic respiration ceases. Muscles are made up of two types of fibre. These fibres have connections between them that lock and unlock during muscle contraction and relaxation. These connections are controlled by a biochemical pathway within the cell, which is partially driven by the presence of calcium ions. The concentration of calcium ions is higher in the fluid surrounding muscle cells than it is inside the cells, so calcium tends to diffuse into the cell. High calcium levels inside the cell drive the biochemical pathway in the direction that maintains muscle contraction. To relax, muscle cells must expel the calcium ions from the cell and this requires energy molecules to pump them across the cell membrane. After a body has died, the chemical reaction producing these energy molecules is unable to proceed because of a lack of oxygen. The cells no longer have the energy to pump calcium out of the cell and so the calcium concentration rises, forcing the muscles to remain in a contracted state. This state of muscle stiffening is known as rigor mortis and it remains until the muscle proteins start to decompose. Cells eventually die and the body loses its capacity to fight off bacteria. The cells' own enzymes and bacterial activity cause the body to decompose - muscles lose their stiffness. * Brain cells can die if deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes. Muscle cells live on for several hours. Bone and skin cells can stay alive for several days. * It takes around 12 hours for a human body to be cool to the touch and 24 hours to cool to the core. * Rigor mortis commences after three hours and lasts until 36 hours after death. * Forensic scientists use clues such as these for estimating the time of death.


Livor Mortis or lividity?

Livor mortis or postmortem lividity or hypostasis (Latin: livor---bluish color, mortis---of death), one of the signs of death, is a settling of the blood in the lower (dependent) portion of the body, causing a purplish red discoloration of the skin: when the heart is no longer agitating the blood, heavy red blood cells sink through the serum by action of gravity. This discoloration does not occur in the areas of the body that are in contact with the ground or another object, as the capillaries are compressed.Coroners can use the presence or absence of livor mortis as a means of determining an approximate time of death. The presence of livor mortis is an indication of when it would be irrelevant to begin CPR, or when it is ineffective to continue it if it is in progress. It can also be used by forensic investigators to determine whether or not a body has been moved (for instance, if the body is found lying face down but the pooling is present on the deceased's back, investigators can determine that the body was originally positioned face up).Livor mortis starts 20 minutes to 3 hours after death and is congealed in the capillaries in 4 to 5 hours. Maximum lividity occurs within 6-12 hours. The blood pools into the interstitial tissues of the body.Noun1.lividity - a state of fury so great the face becomes discoloredfury, rage, madness - a feeling of intense anger; "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"; "his face turned red with rage"2.lividity - unnatural lack of color in the skin (as from bruising or sickness or emotional distress)paleness, pallidness, pallor, wanness, achromasia, lividness, luridnesscomplexion, skin color, skin colour - the coloring of a person's face