General and Environmental Physiology

The Animal Physiology Course will present diverse subjects. The central thread will be the use of the chemical energy produced by the organism from the food ingested and its continuous transformation. These mechanisms have consolidated dynamics and are instrumental for the living organism to surviving in a dynamic equilibrium. Transient conditions of instability are tolerated and often used by the living organism to perform different functions. However, chronic unbalanced conditions are often producing a situation that in other disciplines is called pathological state.

- The concept of biodiversity in Physiology
- Balanced and unbalanced conditions
- The separators: the cellular membrane functions
- The concept of Potential Enargy
- Chemical and electrical potential
- The transporters: passive and active transports, ionic channels and ionic pumps
- Water adsorption and food uptake in epithelia
- Gas exchange in respiratory epithelia
- The electrical membrane potential
- The communicators: cellular excitability, cell-to-cell communication from hormones to synapses
- The control function of the neuro system
- The transformers: Smooth, cardiac and skeletal muscle
- Peristalsis of the digest track and in the circulatory system
- Biomechanics of the striated muscle: isometric and isotonic contraction
- The walking mechanism of bipeds and quadrupeds
- The heart: pace maker mechanism and the control of heart beat
- The excretory system: renal clearance
- The nephron
- The sensory systems: the mechanism of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell