Environment General Courses (ENVIRON)

graduate level, taught in Durham

298.60 Integrative and Comparative Pathobiology for Toxicologists
Spring 2004
Professor David E. Hinton
Environmental Sciences and Policy
Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences
A333 B LSRC
613-8038
dhinton@duke.edu

This will be a lecture and laboratory (computer-based and using mounted photomicrographs) course emphasizing basic concepts and terminology of cells, tissues and organs. Using the mammalian anatomical plan and its major alterations in acute and chronic toxicity, the course seeks to acquaint the student with the skills necessary to integrate molecular findings/responses to those of cells, tissues, organs and organ systems. Specific topics include: cellular adaptation and cell injury; pathogenesis and morphology of cell injury and death, intra- and extra-cellular accumulations; circulatory disturbances including hemorrhage, thrombosis and edema; biochemical mediators and cells of inflammation; forms of inflammation and repair; host &parasite interactions in disease; alterations in growth; biology of neoplastic and malignant cells; and, mechanisms of carcinogenesis.
Next, the course will cover specific organ systems reviewing dynamic anatomy and emphasizing features of toxicity. The major aim is to integrate form with altered function enabling the student to move from molecular derangement to phenotype. Circulatory, musculoskeletal, digestive, nervous, integumentary, reproductive, respiratory, and urinary systems will be covered.
Where diversions from the general mammalian structural plan are encountered in analysis of fishes versus mammals, the former will be discussed in detail with emphasis on normal and altered structure. Finally, an overall objective of the proposed course will be the comparative approach. First, this will focus on dynamic organology. There are common features between similarly named organs in fish and mammalian species; and, there are significant differences. These differences emerge as important in toxicity studies in at least the following ways: tissue components within similarly named organs may differ (intertubular regions of kidney of fishes are sites where hematopoiesis occurs, there is no bone marrow; certain fish species lack a stomach; a gill is not a lung); because of the environmental medium in which they reside, composite functions of similarly-named organs differ (mucus production in skin of aquatic organisms; osmoregulatory function in the major respiratory organ);and, for example, reproductive anatomy, function and toxicology is nearly species dependent. Using bony fishes, I intend to aid the student in developing an understanding of the manner in which the biological activities of different types of cells, when organized as tissues, or combined into organs, contribute to the functions of the organs and organ systems that comprise the organism and are critical to the functions of that organism. Another goal will be to compare the basic similarities and differences in the cellular organizations of organs and organ systems between the organisms. Then, we will focus on the toxic alterations exhibited at the various levels of biological organization within these organisms. We shall accomplish this by reviewing selected manuscripts. This comparative toxicology will augment other mammalian toxicology courses and avoid duplication. Where similar manifestations of toxicity (viz. carcinogenicity, teratogenicity) are encountered, we shall mention only mammalian references. Where responses are different, we shall distinguish them emphasizing specifics as shown in one but not the other class of vertebrates.
Finally the course recognizes the recent expanded usage of aquatic animals as models for specific aspects of human disease. Successful completion of course objectives will permit the student to master the recognition of potential uses of these alternative models and communicate this to the biomedical reviewers participating in standard study sections.