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.

Goals

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.

Assessment method

Each student will present to the course instructors in the January session a presentation of about 10 minutes on a recent article with sufficient results related to a topic covered in one or more courses. The student will explain what particularly interested or challenged them. This will be followed by a 10-minute discussion of the topic and its possible links to other issues covered in the course. The choices of papers and related topics will be submitted to the Chairholders by the closing conference of the course, i.e. 6 December 2021. Each student will individually present to the organizers of the program, during the January session of exams, in around10 minutes an oral description of a recently published research paper holding sufficiently new and interesting data related to one or several topics developed during the lectures. Special interests and questioning by the student are particularly welcome. In a second time of 10 minutes also, the presentation and its content will be discussed, together with potential links with other topics of the lectures. The chosen research papers will firstly be submitted for approval by the supervisors of this program, at latest on the day of the last lecture.

Sources, references and any support material

The slide shows used during the courses will be accessible via Webcampus. The slideshow used by lecturers for teaching will be made available through Webcampus platform.

Language of instruction

Français