What Are the Functions of the Major Organs in the Muscular System?

You may already know that your muscles depend on your lungs for oxygen and on your heart for blood. In ways less obvious, several other organs support the muscular system.

Gonads

Estrogen is secreted by the ovaries and stimulates the growth of smooth muscle lining the reproductive tract, whereas testosterone, secreted primarily by the testes, promotes skeletal-muscle growth, according to “Human Physiology, Eighth Edition” by Arthur Vander, James Sherman and Dorothy Luciano.

Spleen

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Without well-functioning blood, muscles would languish. The spleen cleans the blood by filtering out dead, damaged and deformed cells, according to “Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Nineteenth Edition.”

Liver

Keeping muscles supplied with energy, the liver can feed glucose to the bloodstream by breaking down hepatic energy stores, according to Neil Campbell, Jane Reece and Lawrence Mitchell in their book “Biology, Fifth Edition.”

Kidneys

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Healthy kidneys keep the acid-base balance in a range ideal for the metabolic reactions on which muscle contraction depends, according to Vander, Sherman and Luciano.

Brain

The brain’s sensorimotor cortex and brainstem transmit impulses via two neural pathways that maintain healthy muscle tone, preventing both muscle rigidity and flaccidity, according to Vander et al.