00768 - General Pathology

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student is expected to acquire a body of knowledge concerning the physical, chemical and biologicals causes of diseases and the mechanisms involved in metabolic disesases, cell injury and cell death, acute and chronic inflammation, innate and adaptive immunology, antibody production, B and T lymphocytes activity and function, hypersensibility reactions, spontaneous and experimental induced neoplasms, oncogenes, cancer cell biology and vascular diseases.

Course contents

Introduction to pathology and general causes of diseases. Genetic disorders. The cellular basis of diseases: adaptations (hyperplasia, hypertrophy, atrophy, metaplasia). Reversible and irreversible cell injury (necrosis and apoptosis). Mechanisms of cell injury. Intracellular accumulation. Acute inflammation: general features, vascular changes, cellular events and molecules involved. Chemical mediators of inflammations. Systemic effects of inflammation. Tissue repair (regeneration, healing and fibrosis). Aspecific and specific chronic inflammation. Granulomas. Edema and shock. Infectious diseases (virus and bacteria and toxins). Esotoxins and endotoxins. Environmental pathology: physical and chemical causes of injury (ionizing and ultraviolet radiations), (drugs, industrial and nutritional agents). Neoplasia: classification, benign and malignant neoplasms, epidemiology, molecular basis of cancer, multistep carcinogenesis, biology of cancer cell, metastasis.

Immunology: the Immune System. Structure and Components. Innate Immunity (defence mechanisms, fagocitosis, Natural Killer, complement and cytochines). The Adaptative Immune System: general chracteristics. Antigen capture and presentation: the Major Histocompatibility Complex I and II. T lymphocytes and the T Cell Receptor. B Lymphocytes and the antigen receptor. The Immunoglobulines and the antibodies diversity. The humoral immune response. The cell mediate immunity. The elimination of microbes and toxins by humoral immunity. Antigen-antibody reactions in vivo and in vitro in biology and medicine. Seroprophylaxis and vaccination. The monoclonal antibodies. Hypersensitivity reactions (I, II, III and IV type). Tolerance, autoimmunity, immunodeficiency.

Readings/Bibliography

A.K.Abbas A.H. Lichtman Le basi dell'immunologia. Fisiopatologia del sistema immunitario. Ed. Masson
Robbins e Cotran Le basi patologiche delle malattie (Patologia Generale). Ed. Elsevier
Maurizio Parola Patologia Generale. EdiSES

Teaching methods

lectures

Assessment methods

oral test

Teaching tools

PC, slide projector

Office hours

See the website of Fulvia Farabegoli