GENERAL PATHOLOGY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
Students must have passed the exam of Physiology
Written test based on questions with multichoice answers
The course of General Pathology should enable the student to acquire the basic knowledge of the modern molecular and cellular pathology with special emphasis to the processes of Inflammation, Cell Death and Oncogenesis. The various cellular and molecular components of Inflammation are described and specific examples of acute and chronic inflammation are provided. Cell Death includes chapters on Apoptosis and Necrosis and on corresponding molecular mechanisms. The study of oncogenesis includes epidemiologic aspects and environmental factors involved in the generation of the neoplasia. The genetic and molecular correlates of cellular transformation, including oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, are dealt in detail.
Lecture titles in General Pathology
Cell damage and cell death: programmed cell death or Apoptosis
a. morphological changes of apoptotic cells
b. death receptors
c. apoptotic signal and activation of intracellular apoptotic program
d. caspases
e. DNA fragmentation
f. Clearing of apoptotic cells
Cell damage and cell death: Necrosis
a. pathologic events causing cell necrosis
b. morphologica changes of necrotic cells
c. mechanisms of necrosis: ubiquitination, ATP depletion, alteration in Calcium homeostasis, active oxygen and nitrogen radicals
d. the defence against oxidative stress
The response to the lesion: Inflammation
a. leukocyte migration, endothelia adhesion, migration, chemotaxis, role of cytokines and chemokines
b. Acute Inflammation: causes, phases and modalities
c. wounded healing
d. acute inflammation generated by IgE-mediated allergy
e. Chronic Inflammation: chronic lesions, chronic inflammation derived from persistent acute inflammation, primary chroni inflammation
f. Chronic inflammation in tuberculosis: genesis and nature of the granuloma
Pathogenesis of aquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
a. receptors and coreceptors of HIV; mechanism of viral entry and viral spreading
b. diversity in susceptility to HIV infection
c. viral gene products and their action on host cell homeostasis
d. growth and amplification of virus infection during the preclinical stage
e. pathogenesis of CD4-positive cell distruction
Pathogenesis of cell division and cell differentiation
a. control of cell proliferation
b. Hyperlasia, hypoplasia, atrophy, hypertrophy and metaplasia
Oncogenesis
a. physical, chemical and environmental carcinogenesis
b. tumor initiators and tumor promoters
c. multistep carcinogenesis
d. tumor epidemiology
e. differentiation and control of tumor growth oncogenic viruses
f. oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes: discovery, structure and mechanism of action
g. oncogenic viruses
The metastastic process: mechanism of action, molecular and cellular correlates
Host defences against tumors
a. non specific defence against cancer cells
b. antigenicity and immunogenicity of tumor cells
c. mechanisms of tumor elusion/evasion from immunological recognition
d. humoral and cellular responses against tumor cells
e. new strategies for biological therapies and pharmacological therapies against cancer
Textbooks recommended:
- McGee, Isaacson, Wright, Patologia 1: I principi.
- Cotran, Kumar, Collins, Robbins’s Pathologic Basis of Disease 8th orn9th edition in English
- Rubin and Strayer (Rubin’s pathology): Patologia Generale, 6th Edition in English
Lectures ex cathedra
none