Learning objectives
The objectives of the course will acquire the basic knowledge on hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms that regulate hematopoiesis and on major diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs. Educational objective will also be to learn the main clinical applications of hematopoietic stem cells and in particular transplant procedures. Students will need to show ability to understand what is the physiology and pathophysiology of hematopoietic stem cells, hematopoiesis and blood diseases and must show competence on the notions that the student will acquire through the frequency of education and study.
The course will also aim to achieve autonomy judgment, communication skills and learning ability in the field of hematopoietic stem cell biology and their clinical applications
Prerequisites
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Course unit content
The first lessons will be focused on haemopoietic stem cells and stem cell niches: osteoblastic and vascular niche. Moreover general topics such as the process of hematopoiesis, including erythropoiesis, the myelopoiesis and lymphopoiesis, and characteristics of peripheral blood cells will also be described. Lessons will be carried out on laboratory procedures for identifying, characterizing and studying hematopoietic stem cells by both transcriptional and immunophenotypic analyses. The role of growth factors such as erythropoietin, thrombopoietin, and the colony stimulating factors will be discussed as well as methods for in vitro expansion of hematopoietic stem cells.
The second part of the course will be focused on the pathophysiology of hematopoietic stem cells and their microenvironment including the process of cancer neo-angiogenesis. A general overview of blood and blood-forming organ diseases will be made, including anemia, leukemia, myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative diseases, lymphomas and multiple myeloma addressing the etiological, pathophysiological and diagnostic aspects.
The third part of the course regards the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with a focus on laboratory procedures such as freezing, handling, purging, depletion and cell enrichment. The HLA system and its methods of study, donor search and alternative sources of stem cells will be also explained. The main aspects concerning the procedures of self-transplantation and allo-transplantation from matched and not compatible donors, the indications for transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells and clinical problems of transplantation will be discussed.
Full programme
Blood cells, hematopoiesis, hematopoietic stem cell. stem cell niche. bone marrow microenvironment.
Mesenchymal stem cells.
Laboratory diagnosis of blood disease: flow cytometry cytogenetic and molecula biology.
Notion of the pathophysiology and clinic of blood disease: anemias ( aplastic anemia, congetical anemias), myelodisplastic syndrome, acute leukemias, chronic leukemias, Myeloproliferative disorders,.
Multiple myeloma
Cancer stem cells
Tumoral microenvironment.
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: biological and clinical basis and procedures.
Autologous and allogeneic trasplantation.
Sources of stem cells for transplant. Graft versus host disease.
Laboratory's procedures to support stem cell transplant.
Cord blood trasplantation.
Non hematological application of stem cell transplant.
Clinical use of mesenchymal stem cells.
Normatives for the clinical use of stem cells.
Bibliography
M.T. Voso-N. Giuliani- A. Olivieri-A. Venditti
Hematology
Edizioni- Idelson Gnocchi
Teaching methods
Lectures will be held on-site in compliance with safety standards, provided that further instructions on the ongoing health emergency are not implemented. Supporting material will be available on the specific, student-reserved platform (Elly) and will include slide presentations, audio-video aids or video-recording of the lectures.
The modalities of teaching and teaching methods of the course will be lectures, participation in seminars and conferences and exercises in the laboratory of Hematology and bibliographical research. During the lectures will discuss the issues related to stem cells, hematopoiesis and blood diseases.
The course will be supported by laboratory exercises. The exercises will be individual and practices and their purpose is to provide the opportunity for each student to be able to measure in the design of autonomous solution to the real problems that will be made. These activities will be planned in such a way that within each exercise, the student can achieve practically the solutions of the problems outlined during theoretical lessons.
Assessment methods and criteria
The primary mode of verification will be to make interactive lessons with questions aimed at students and their active involvement in the discussion on the main issues discussed during class knowledge and the links between knowledge skills that are going to occur will focus on what are the characteristics of hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal cells, the notions haematopoiesis and pathophysiology, etiology and diagnosis of blood diseases and stem cell transplantation procedures and manipulation of hematopoietic stem cells in the laboratory.
A final check will be made through written test with open questions on the main topics discussed during the lectures.
Written examination, multiple choice test.
In case of the persistence of the health emergency, the exams will be conducted remotely, as follows:
structured written test conducted remotely (by Teams and Elly). The test consists of 30 multiple choice questions on the course contents (reference texts + documents uploaded to Elly during the course). There is no penalty for incorrect answers.
The final mark, reported directly on Esse3, will correspond to the arithmetic average of the assessments obtained in the written test.
Students with SLD / BSE must first contact Le Eli-che: support for students with disabilities, D.S.A., B.E.S. (https://sea.unipr.it/it/servizi/le-eli-che-supporto-studenti-con-disabilita-dsa-bes
Other information
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