Università Roma Tre

Cultural knowledge: The aims of this course are: to gain knowledge of the specialized cellular architecture of glia and neurons; to deepen the knowledge of cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in cell communication between glia and neurons. Special emphasis will be given to nitric oxide-regulated pathways. In this course students can use state of the art equipment and learn current techniques employed in cell biology research labs. Moreover students are allowed to critically discuss the scientific literature in the field of glial cell biology.
Methodological skills: to know how to design an experiment using glial cell cultures, to acquire and analyze the data obtained from the laboratory activity.
Topics:
The course will deepen the following topics: morphology and ultrastructure of glial cells; Properties and functions of astrocytes; homeostasis of pH, K and volume; The neuro-glial-vascular unit, mechanism of cerebral blood flow regulation; gliotransmitters release and the tripartite synapse; The role of nitric oxide as neurotransmitter and neurotoxic factor; Microglia: activation, motility and immune surveillance; Reactive astrocytosis, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases. Cellular response to oxidative stress. The laboratory activity will be mainly devoted to the study of nitric oxide as cellular messenger in glial cell cultures. Experimental procedures include but are not limited to the following: Preparation of whole, cytoplasmic and nuclear extracts, Western Blot; Analysis of gene expression and transcription factor activation (RNA extraction, RT-PCR, EMSA, TransAM-ELISA); Modulation of gene expression (Oligo-Decoy); Cell Transfection; Analysis of nitric oxide (NO) pathway and determination of NO in living cells and in cell extracts.

BRUCE R. RANSOM, HELMUT KETTENMANN. “NEUROGLIA”
– THIRD EDITION – 2012 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Slides in PDF format of all the lectures will be provided by the teacher.

The teacher receives the students at least once a week by appointment via e-mail: tiziana.persichini@uniroma3.it