STFKA0001U Toxicology and Ecotoxicology

The course gives a basic overview on fundamentals in both human-, eco- and occupational toxicology. Basic toxicological topics encompass toxicodynamic, toxicokinetic description and metabolism of major groups of contaminants. Furthermore the course will give a basic understanding of acute toxic effects on the skin, the respiratory system, genotoxicity, mutagenicity, cell toxicity, organ toxicity, cancer development, reproduction, immunotoxicology and the effects of hormone disrupting compounds. Also teratogenicity, toxicophore description and modeling of dose-response relationships will be among the subjects. Classification of chemicals will shortly be described in the course and further more the use of toxicological data bases to access exposure and effect data will be discussed. The course will also discuss in detail how to quantify a dose or an exposure of a chemical and be able to predict most important exposure routes or pathways. This will also include models for calculating effects of exposures to multiple compounds with same/similar mode of action. As an important element of the course the background for the fetal origins hypothesis will be addressed, which postulates that chemical exposure of non-acute toxicological effects during the prenatal environment “program” of the fetus is important for later development of diseases in adulthood. In ecotoxicology, the students will be introduced to the major groups of xenobiotica known to affect or potentially affect human health and ecosystem health. Subjects such as acute and chronic effects on different trophic levels in both the soil and aquatic environment, biodegradation of substances, bioaccumulation and effects at ecosystem level will be among the subjects. Occupational toxicology will focus on how to achieve a sound environment during production using chemicals. An overview of the most important diseases due to chemical exposure during occupation will be addressed. The overall aim of this course is to prepare the students to be able to at a later stage to perform simple risk assessments scenarios of human, environmental and occupational heath hazards and to evaluate potential hazards of a given xenobiotic. Lectures, theoretical - and practical laboratory exercises will be the main form of teaching. Lectures are based on textbooks and some scientific papers. The topics of the theoretical exercises run in parallel with the topics treated in the lectures.
During the laboratory work groups of 4 students will work together to respond a laboratory assignment that primarily will include the use on in-vitro human- or ecotoxicological assay’s. The laboratory assignment focuses on selected chemicals and draws on the general insight in chemical, biological and physical processes to be learned and thus is fundamentally important for toxicology. Results are reported as a scientific manuscript and as an oral presentation.