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?General Description of the Department
The department was founded by Professor Shoji Kume in April 1991. His successor
Professor Yukio Ozaki has been in charge of educational and research activities
of the department since April 1997. We seek to give medical students fruitful
education related to laboratory medicine so that they will be able to reach
appropriate diagnosis and treatment plans. We hope to make contributions
to the advancement of medicine through research and development of laboratory
procedures, investigation and evaluation of clinical significance of laboratory
tests, and better understanding of pathogenesis. Secondly, we focus on
maintaining the level of our services as the central laboratory unit at
a high level. Since our service is to provide laboratory data on patients
by which diagnosis and therapy are based upon, it is our duty to supply
accurate test results to the clinical staff. Furthermore, we are also involved
in the states-of-the-art research related to the mechanism of thrombus
formation, with special emphasis on the roles of platelets and vascular
endothelial cells.
Members of Faculty??
Professor … Yukio Ozaki, MD, PhD
Associate Professor … Katsue Suzuki-Inoue, MD, PhD
Research Associate: … Osamu Inoue, MD, DPhil(Central Laboratory Unit, University Hospital)
Research Associate: … Katsuhiro Takano, MD, PhD
Teaching Associate … Kaneo Satoh, PhD
Administrative Manager … Masako Shibata
Technician … Chiaki Komatsu , Junko Nakagomi
PhD Students … Wuxun Jin , Katsuyuki Akahane , Hitomi Sato
General Description of Research Activities
The department conducts research on thrombosis and haemostasis with particular references to blood platelets and vascular endothelial cells. The followings are our main research projects:
1.Detection of the activated state of platelets
2.Monitoring of anti-platelet therapy
3.Unraveling the mechanism of platelet activation, particularly those related to tyrosine phosphorylation
4. Finding and characterizing a novel platelet-activating receptor that plays a role in thrombosis and haemostasis
Platelets play a central role in the mechanism of the primary phase of haemostasis in cases of vascular damages, and they are also involved in the development of pathologic thrombus formation and arteriosclerosis. It follows that qualitative and quantitative evaluation of platelet function and detection of the activated state of platelets in vivo are important challenges in clinical medicine. Another problem in clinical and laboratory medicine is that we still do not have ideal method for monitoring the effect of anti-platelet drug, although a number of patients undertake anti-platelet therapy. Therefore, we are seeking a new laboratory test for monitoring anti-platelet therapy.
Platelets are activated with various stimuli, and full platelet activation requires the interaction between receptors and ligands on the platelet membrane and subsequent activation of intracellular signal transduction pathways. We have discovered that protein tyrosine phosphorylation is closely related to the signal transduction pathways in platelets, and we are currently seeking to identify the molecules involved in these processes and to investigate their functional significances. Increasing bodies of evidence suggest that there are unknown platelet activation receptor(s) on platelet surfaces that contribute to thrombosis and haemostasis. We have recently identified a novel platelet activating receptor, c-type lectin-like receptor 2 (CLEC-2) as a receptor for the snake venom rhodocytin (Suzuki-Inoue et al., Blood 2006). We are now characterizing CLEC-2 including its physiological ligand and role in vivo.
General Description of Educational Activities
Through our clinical training, medical students need to acquire adequate
knowledge of each clinical and laboratory test and the ability to choose
appropriate methods, interpretation of the results, diagnosis, and treatment
based on evaluation of laboratory tests. For that purpose, we offer classes
to students on general theory of clinical and laboratory medicine, and
we give detailed explanations on basic test techniques during courses.
In the fifth year, we provide clinical training at the hospital in groups
of two to six students. They perform various measurements by themselves
(blood drawing, electrocardiograms, urinary sediment, white blood cell
differentiation, biochemical tests) using mainly their own samples, so
that they can acquire fundamental techniques and improve their ability
in interpreting and evaluating test data.
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