Pharmacology
Dose-response relationships and concepts in ligand-receptor binding, demonstrated through hands-on courses using isolated ileum, vas deferens and vascular smooth muscle tissue.
Pre-Lab Prep
This lesson is designed to be used before the Lab. Questions have been set to allow multiple attempts for formative assessment. However, it is very simple to change the setting so that students may make only one attempt and their answers can be graded.
Independent learning (30 minutes)
Lab
This lesson includes a Challenge page to get the learners thinking about the main point of each exercise. Each exercise has an activity and an analysis page with questions to check their understanding. These check your understanding questions allow single attempts.
Group work (2 hours)
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Airways Resistance
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In this lab learners use a guinea pig trachea dissection to simulate asthma, and measure the effects of histamine and acetylcholine on airway contraction. Students also observe the effects of drugs used to treat asthma, such as salbutamol and theophylline, and their interaction.
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Chick Biventer Cervicis
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In this lab, learners use the isolated biventer cervicis muscle from a chick to investigate how the curare poison affects muscle contraction, and which drugs may work as an antidote to curare.
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Mammalian Atria
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In this lab, learners use a guinea pig atria to examine how isoprenaline, propranolol, acetylcholine, atropine, and physostigmine affect the frequency and strength of myocardial contraction.
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Mammalian Diaphragm
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In this lab, learners use an isolated phrenic-innervated diaphragm muscle preparation to investigate how suxamethonium, tubocurarine, and edrophonium affect neuromuscular transmission.
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Mammalian Heart
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In this lab, learners use an isolated rabbit heart to investigate the effects of epinephrine, norepinephrine, isoproterenol, isoprenaline, acetylcholine, lidocaine, ouabain and a low potassium solution on heart rate and the force of contraction.
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Mammalian Jejunum
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In this lab, learners will apply repetitive electrical stimulation to the sympathetic nerves of the isolated rabbit jejunum. This electrical stimulation inhibits rhythmic output from the enteric nerve plexuses, which in turn leads to relaxation of the intestine and reduced gastrointestinal motility. They will also investigate how the drug guanethidine prevents the release of norepinephrine from sympathetic ("adrenergic") nerve terminals.
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Mammalian Uterus
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In this lab, learners will examine the effects of oxytocin and epinephrine on an isolated uterus, investigating the effects of a high potassium solution and both beta-adrenergic agonists and antagonists on uterine smooth muscle (myometrium).
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Stimulated Ileum
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In this lab, learners will use a guinea pig ileum preparation to investigate how codeine, naloxone, naltrexone, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine affect gastrointestinal motility.
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Stimulated Rat Vas Deferens
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In this lab, learners use a stimulated rat vas deferens to study drugs that act presynaptically and test the effects of these drugs on synaptic transmission. They also investigate the effects of a range of adrenoceptor agonists and antagonists.
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Toad Rectus Abdominis
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In this lab, learners use an isolated toad rectus abdominis muscle to investigate the effects of tubocurarine and suxamethonium on muscle contraction stimulated by acetylcholine application.
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Unstimulated Ileum
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In this lab, learners examine the effects of a variety of drugs on the unstimulated guinea pig ileum preparation. Students also examine the effects of two mystery drugs and determine their mechanism of action.
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Unstimulated Rat Vas Deferens
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In this lab, learners use an isolated rat vas deferens to investigate the effects of alpha adrenergic receptor agonists and antagonists, and drugs that affect the amount of norepinephrine in the synaptic cleft.
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Vascular Resistance
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In this lab, learners perfuse the isolated hindquarters of a rat at a constant flow. From the changes in pressure required to maintain this flow, the vascular resistance is recorded. While many drugs have an effect on blood pressure, this can be due to a primary effect on the heart (changing flow) or on the vascular bed (changing resistance). To clearly define the site of action in the cardiovascular system, it is often necessary to use a simplified preparation such as the rat hindquarters.
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Vascular Smooth Muscle
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In this lab learners will use arterial rings from a pig coronary artery to explore some drug effects. Arterial rings can be used to demonstrate classical responses to autonomic drugs on vascular smooth muscle. Arterial rings can also be used to show the recently-discovered role of the endothelium in modulating vascular responses.
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