Cellular environment [SMEDM114]

Learning outcomes

The course is co-organised by professors Catherine Lambert de Rouvroit and Yves Poumay. These lectures are co-organised by two Professors, Catherine Lambert de Rouvroit and Yves Poumay. The presence of English-speaking students will eventually shift the teaching to English.

Objectives

To illustrate the importance of the immediate environment of cells on their physiology and cellular pathologies. To give a broad view of the importance of the immediate environment of cells for their physiology, as well as in cell pathologies.

Content

The cell is an individual entity that is largely regulated in its physiology (adhesion, migration, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis processes) by its environment, which it influences in return. This course will propose a range of precise examples, chosen most often at the level of the skin, which influence cellular physiology, modulate tissue healing, and possibly explain the appearance of pathologies, cutaneous in several examples. These examples will concern, among others: - The extracellular matrix and cell anchoring via adhesion molecules - Autocrine, juxtacrine and paracrine growth factors - Cytokines and inflammatory diseases - Balance and imbalance of the microbiota and infectious agents. Links with cutaneous toxicology (irritation and sensitisation) will also be established. Cells are living units whose physiology is considerably controlled (adhesion, migration, proliferation, differentiation and apoptotic processes) by their own immediate environment, which cells in return influence. Lectures in this program will provide a bunch of precise examples of those inter-relationships, most often chosen in studies of the skin, and in which there is a clear influence on cell physiology, or a modulation of wound healing of tissues, and bring eventual explanations for the development of pathologies, cutaneous in several instances. Examples include: Extracellular matrix and cell anchorage through adhesion molecules - Autocrine, juxtacrine and paracrine growth factors - Cytokines and inflammatory diseases - Microbiota: equilibrium and disequilibrium in regard of infectious diseases. Some critical connections with skin toxicology (irritation-sensitization) will also be discussed.