Abstract
Health science education is presently in discussion throughout Europe due to the Bologna Declaration. Teaching basic sciences such as biochemistry in a health sciences context, namely in allied heath education, can be a challenging task since the students of preclinical health sciences are not often convinced that basic sciences are clinically valuable (J. R. Rudland, S. C. Rennie (2003) The determination of the relevance of basic sciences learning objectives to clinical practice using a questionnaire survey, Med. Educ. (Oxf.) 37, 962-965; E. C. Wragg (2003) How can we determine the relevance of basic sciences learning objectives to clinical practice?, Med. Educ. (Oxf.) 37, 948-949). Thus, nowadays teachers are compelled to use their imagination to be able to elaborate laboratory sessions aiming for the understanding of theoretical concepts that are also clinically related: in other words, basic concepts and skills that underlie the competencies demanded of the future health professional. In the present work, we describe a set of laboratory sessions implemented in the discipline of biochemistry, belonging to the first year of several courses of allied health professionals, which can also be implemented in other health sciences courses. These sessions focus on the characteristics and properties of carbohydrates. The exercises we propose include two different laboratory practical sessions based on a histopathological routine technique known as periodic acid and Schiff reactive that is currently used to detect sugar metabolic and tumor diseases (J. M. T. Rivera, C. T. López, B. C. Segui (2001) Bioquímica Estructural: Conceptos y Tests, Tebar Flores, Madrid). The methodology described enables the demonstration of some biochemical properties of polysaccharides, namely animal and vegetable, and the catalytic activity of the human salivary α-amylase (EC.3.2.1.1) enzyme. A further comparison between α-amylase activity in vitro and in situ is also possible by the proposed methodology. Additionally, to this extent, a comparison between the results of the learning improvement that occurred after the implementation of this tool is presented.
Highlights
Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy in our diet
periodic acid (PA) purchased from Panreac was prepared in a 10% solution (v/v); ␣-amylase was purchased from Sigma, and it was prepared in a solution containing 2.5 mg/ml and stored at 4 °C
The starch-containing tube from series three could not give a positive response to periodic acid and Schiff reactive (PAS) once ␣-amylase digested the insoluble polysaccharides of high molecular weight into low molec
Summary
Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy in our diet. They are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Glycogen is an important energetic storage compound in animals, and its structure is similar to starch, the main glucose storage compound of plants. The structure of amylopectin and glycogen is similar. Amylose has a linear structure with D-glucose residues linked with ␣(134) glycosidic bonds. Amylopectin and glycogen are branched polysaccharides of D-glucose residues with a linear structure maintained by ␣(134) bonds and branched regions with ␣(136) bonds [11,12,13,14,15]. Periodic acid and Schiff reactive technique has since become broadly used in histochemistry/cytochemistry studies to identify carbohydrates such as the glycogen and mucopolysaccharides. The glycogen can be found physiologically in cardiac and skeletal muscles, skin, parathyroid glands, and especially in liver [15]
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