Integrated Course: Morpho-Functional SciencesModule Physiology
Academic Year 2024/2025 - Teacher: Venera CARDILEExpected Learning Outcomes
The course allows the student to acquire the knowledge about the vital functions of man and the cellular mechanisms of the major biological systems. It analyzes the integrated functioning of the different organs and systems of control by which the living organism obtains and maintains the homeostasis inside.
Course Structure
Lectures will be held supported by teaching material.
Required Prerequisites
Attendance of Lessons
Detailed Course Content
Cell membranes
Exchanges between cells and the environment
Simple diffusion through membranes - Diffusion through channels: channel selectivity, leakage channels ("always" open) and gated channels (equipped with "doors"), water channels (aquaporins) - Mediated transport: membrane carriers, facilitated diffusion, active primary and secondary transport - Water movement across membranes: osmosis - Vesicular transport: phagocytosis, pinocytosis, exocytosis - Exchanges through the epithelia.
Ionic flows and electrical effects
Excitable cells
Characteristics of the action potential: refractoriness, accommodation - Conduction of signals along nerve fibers: velocity, myelination - Electrical membrane properties of pacemaker and non-specific myocardial fibers - Skeletal and smooth muscle fibers: electrical, mechanical and metabolic aspects of contraction - Ca2 + ions in muscle contraction.
Communication between cells
Mechanisms, modulation and control of endocrine communication: hormones, receptors, second messengers - Synaptic communication: electrical and chemical synapses, pre- and post-synaptic mechanisms, neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, space-time summation, plasticity (LTP and LTD) - Neuro synapses -muscular.
Coding of sensory information
Receptor complexes: classifications, definition of stimulus, threshold and receptive field - Transduction and coding mechanisms - Receptor sensitivity - Spinal reflexes.
Control of vegetative functions
Organization of the nervous system
Cardio-circulatory system
Blood: composition, functions, gas transport, hematopoiesis.
Hemodynamics (velocity, pressure, resistance, flow regimes) - Functions of the arteries: elastic properties, arterial pulse - District and systemic control of peripheral resistances - Capillary exchanges - Venous return
Cardiac function: automatism, mechanical and electrical properties, intrinsic and extrinsic regulation.
Ventilation in terrestrial environments - Mechanical aspects of pulmonary ventilation: dead spaces, respiratory volumes, intrapleural and alveolar pressure, compliance, surface tension - Alveolar-capillary diffusion - Ventilation control: bulb-pontine centers, intrinsic rhythm, chemical and mechanical regulation .
Renal mechanisms: filtration, reabsorption, secretion - Excretion of metabolic waste - Water balance: urine concentration - Volume control, osmolarity and acid-base balance of body solutions.
Digestion
Digestive system: motility, secretions and absorption - Exocrine pancreas - Role of bile - Nervous and chemical control of gastrointestinal functions.
Textbook Information
D.U. Silverthorn, Fisiologia umana, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana;
Fisiologia medica, a cura di F. Conti - EdiErmes
Fisiologia Medica di Guyton e Hall - Elsevier
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cell membranes - Exchanges between cells and the environment - Ionic flows and electrical effects - Excitable cells | Silverthorn, Fisiologia umana, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana |
| 2 | Communication between cells - Coding of sensory information - Control of vegetative functions | Silverthorn, Fisiologia umana, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana |
| 3 | Cardio-circulatory system - Ventilation - Regulation of the internal environment - Digestion | Silverthorn, Fisiologia umana, Casa Editrice Ambrosiana |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
Examples of written test questions:
1. In the chemical synapse, the arrival of the action potential at the axon terminal
induces the mechanisms that cause the exocytosis of the neurotransmitter
stimulates the opening of voltage-gated K+ channels at the presynaptic level
stimulates the opening of voltage-gated Ca++ channels
induces the hyperpolarization of the post-synaptic membrane
2. Hormones
are chemical messengers secreted by specialized cells
are transported by the blood to target cells
act by binding to receptors
are transported by some specific or nonspecific circulating transport proteins (albumins)
3. The action potential of contractile myocardial cells (nonspecific myocardium)
has different characteristics from that of autorhythmic cells (specific myocardium)
consists of 5 phases
includes a long plateau phase
begins with a phase of rapid depolarization due to the opening of Ca++ channels