- Docente: Alessandro Silvani
- Credits: 4
- SSD: BIO/09
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Rimini
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Imaging and Radiotherapy techniques (cod. 8486)
Learning outcomes
The course aims at providing students with the ability to acquire knowledge on body functions at different and increasingly complex levels of organization (cells, tissues, organs, and systems), which is necessary to understand pathophysiological processes.
Course contents
(the following is an outline of course contents. please, cf. the Italian version and contact the teacher for full details)
1 • Introduction and general principles
- Composition of intra- and extracellular fluids
- Components and functions of the cell membrane and cytoplasm
- Transport across cell membranes
- Passive transport
- Diffusion
- Osmosis
- Facilitated diffusion
- Active trasport
2 • Biophysics
- Membrane potential
- Action potential
- Synaptic transmission
- Synapses
- Neurotransmitters
- Sensory receptors
- Skeletal muscle physiology
3 • Cardiovascular physiology
- Functional anatomy of the carddiovascular system
- Cardiac electrophysiology
- Heart muscle
- Conduction system
- Heart rhythm
- Functional properties of miocardial tissue
- Cardiac contractility
- The cardiac pump
- The cardiac cycle
- Cardiac output
- Arterial pressure and the measurement thereof
- Mechanisms that control arterial pressure
4 • Renal physiology
- Functional anatomy of the urinary system
- Nephrons
- Juxtaglomerular apparatus
- Renal vascular bed
- Glomerular filttration rate
- Renal blood flow
- Function of peritubular capillaries
- Ultrafiltration across glomerular capillaries
- Pressures determining glomerular filtration
- Glomerular filtration rate
- Regulation of renal blood flow
- Renal clearance
- Tubular functions
- Tubular resorbption
- Transport in Henle's loop
- Processes of secretion and resorbption in teh distal tubule and collecting duct
- Mechanism of concentration of urine
- Antidiuretic hormone
- Control of osmolarity and volume of body fluids
- Mechanisms of thirst and its role in the control of body fluids
- Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone system
5 • Respiratory Physiology
- Functions of the respiratory system
- Mechanics of breathing
- Ventilatory phase of respiration
- Alveolar surfactant
- Airway resistance
- Pressure gradients in the airways
- The respiratory cycle
- Lung ventilation
- Alveolar ventilation
- Diffusion of respiratory gases
- Alveolar-capillary membrane
- Regulation of gas diffusion across the alveolar-capillary membrane
- Oxygen transport in the blood
- Carbon dioxyde transport in the blood
6 Endocrine system
- General mechanisms of endocrine function.
- Adenohypophysis hormones: regulation of secretion and actions on target glands.
- Neurohypophysis
- Growth hormone
- Endocrine regulation of blood glucose levels
- Normal values of blood glucose levels. Mechanisms of action of the hormones that increase blood glucose levels. Mechanisms of action of insulin. Regulation of the secretion of insulin and the hormones that increase blood glucose levels. Diabetes mellitus.
- Parathyroid hormone, calcitonin, vitamin D
7 Principles of digestive function
- General principles and neuroendocrine regulation of motor, secretory, and absorbtive functions of the gastrointestinal system .
- Digestion in the mouth and stomach.
- Chewing, swallowing, salivary secretion, filling and emptying of the stomach.
- Gastric secretion. Neuroendocrine control of salivary and gastric secretion.
- Intestinal digestion and absorption
- Movements of the small intestine and colon. Defecation. Neuroendocrine control of intestinal motility. Composition, functions, and neuroendocrine control of pancreatic exocrine secretion.
- Composition and function of the bile.
- Neuroendocrine control of biliary secretion and intestinal absorption.
Readings/Bibliography
L. Zocchi, Principi di Fisiologia, Edises, Napoli, 2012 Any University textbook of Physiology in English or other foreign languages will also be acceptable if already purchased.
Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
Oral examination
Teaching tools
Computer and projector. Learning material available on AMS campus.
Office hours
See the website of Alessandro Silvani