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Università degli Studi di Parma Università degli Studi di Parma
Degree course in
Biology
Università degli Studi di Parma
Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability

MOLECULAR PHYSIOLOGY
cod. 13550

Academic year 2011/12
3° year of course - First semester
Professor
Academic discipline
Fisiologia (BIO/09)
Field
Discipline fisiologiche e biomediche
Type of training activity
Characterising
24 hours
of face-to-face activities
3 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in - - -
lectures timetable unavailable
exam calls

Integrated course unit module: GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY - MOLECULAR PHYSIOLOGY

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Learning objectives

To integrate notions on membrane excitability and on cellular contraction with a biophysical and molecular approach.

Prerequisites

Good knowledge of: cellular biology, biochemistry, general physiology, physics, and mathematics

Course unit content

Molecular mechanisms of cellular functions: membrane excitability and cellular contraction

Full programme

1. Passive electrical properties of the cell membrane
2. Membrane ion channels
3. Current-voltage relationship for an excitable membrane
4. Experimental techniques for electrophysiological recordings from biological membranes (current clamp and voltage clamp)
5. How to measure passive electrical properties of a cell membrane
6. The patch-clamp technique
7. The membrane current: from single channel to whole cell
8. Hodgkin and Huxley’s theory of ion channels gating
9. How to reconstruct the rapid depolarizing sodium current from voltage clamp data
10. Membrane excitability and action potential
11. Electrotonic interaction and gap junctions: structure and gating
12. Cardiac excitability: an example from cell to bedside
13. The cardiac action potential and the underlying ion currents
14. The action potential of cardiac cells: working and conducting myocardium
15. Molecular mechanism of cardiac refractoriness
16. Molecular mechanisms of the autonomic regulation of the heart
17. Excitation-contraction coupling in the heart
18. Cardiac calcium-induced calcium-release
19. Intracellular calcium dynamics

Bibliography

Principles of Phyusiology. Berne and Levy. 3rd Edition.

Teaching methods

Oral lessons with slides projection

Assessment methods and criteria

Finale oral examination

Other information

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