02359 - General Pathology and Physiopathology (LZ-B)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student: - has clear the concepts of disease etiology and pathogenesis. He/she also knows the etiology of disease processes and the pathogenic mechanism of their development. He/she knows the basic defense mechanisms involved in response to pathogens; the morphological alterations that they cause in cells and tissues and their systemic and functional consequences for the organism. He/she- is able to connect molecular, morphological, microbiological, immunological and physiological knowledge, with the etiopathogenesis of disease processes. He/she is able to use the knowledge of pathology and physiopathology for the critical interpretation of experimental and clinical data. He/she is able to understand the reasons of the signs and symptoms of disease and possesses the basis for the evidence based clinical practice.

Course contents

Cellular and extracellular pathology. Cell adaptations: hypertrophy, hyperplasia, atrophy, metaplasia. Cell death: morphological and molecular aspects of necrosis and apoptosis. Anoikis, autophagy, entosis. Vacuolar degeneration. Dystrophic and metastatic pathological calcifications. Amyloidosis, molecular basis of Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases. Lipid trafficking: steatosis and familial hypercholesterolaemia.

Free radicals and reactive oxygen species. Formation mechanisms and effects on fabrics; enzymatic and non-enzymatic protection systems.

Environmental pathology. Damage from: exciting and ionizing radiation; passage of electric current; high and low temperatures; cigarette smoke; ethanol abuse.

Inflammation, regeneration and repair. Acute inflammation: cells and chemical mediators, vascular phenomena, types of exudate, cellular phenomena, adhesion molecules, receptor-ligand interactions and activation, chemotaxis, phagocytosis and bacteriocidia, NETs and netosis. Neutrophils and bacterial biofilm. Chronic nonspecific and granulomatous inflammation, pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Pneumoconiosis. Regeneration and repair of tissues, wound healing. Pathological outcomes of inflammation and repair. Sclerosis and cirrhosis.

General physiopathology: Thermoregulation, non-febrile hyperthermia, malignant hyperthermia, fever. Thrombosis and embolism. Pathogenesis of shock and heart attack. Atherosclerosis: risk factors, formation of atheromatous plaque, consequences. Other arteriosclerosis: Mönckeberg medial calcific sclerosis and arteriolosclerosis. Ethiopathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and its complications. Diabesity and metabolic syndrome. Edema.

The biological basis of aging: role of telomeres and oxidative metabolism; progeroid syndromes; relationships between aging and inflammation: inflammaging.

The microbiota in health and disease. Relationship with the immune system and metabolism.

The low-grade systemic inflammation in relation to neoplastic and metabolic diseases: obesity, diabetes, atherosclerosis, cancer. Role of stress and relationships with the central nervous system.

Readings/Bibliography

Robbins-Cotran, The pathological basis of disease, 9th edition, Elsevier.

Teaching methods

A total of 64 hour of lectures. It is strongly recommended to print the slides, and to use the prints as a track to make notes. The histopathology laboratories will be made with small groups of students. Each drill lesson will be preceded by a preparatory lecture.

Assessment methods

The final consists in the recognition and discussion of an histopathological section, randomly chosen among those discussed during the Histopathology course. In addition, the student will discuss with the two techers of the theoretical part some topics of the course.The final grade will be the mean of the histopathology grade and of the two grades obtained on the theoretical parts.

Teaching tools

Slides are available from the Insegnamenti On Line website.

Office hours

See the website of Fabio Dall'Olio