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IMSUT Hospital

Department of Laboratory Medicine
検査部

Clinical Professor
Tokiko Nagamura-Inoue, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Tomohiro Ishigaki, M.D., Ph.D.
Project Senior Assistant Professor Koichi Kimura, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Technologist
Hironori Shimosaka

部長／病院教授
副部長／助教
特任講師
技師長

博士（医学）
博士（医学）
博士（医学）
臨床検査技師

長
石木下村
垣村
坂登紀子
知 寛
公 一浩 則The Department of Laboratory Medicine consists of seven divisions: clinicalhematology, biochemistry/serology, microscopy, pathology, microbiology,
physiology, and TR verification laboratory.
Clinical laboratory tests are necessary for all clinical practice steps including
diagnosis of diseases, evaluation of stages, determination of treatments, andassessment after therapy. Our department engages in most of the clinicallaboratory examinations in our hospital under stringent quality control and provides
investigational laboratory analysis in collaboration with many other departments.
To facilitate translational research projects in this research hospital, we had
established a special division named TR verification laboratory. This division has
contributed to evaluating the safety of experimental therapeutic approaches andbiopharmaceutical products for clinical trials.
As a central medical department, we are also taking part in many clinical trials andsupporting many researches conducted in our hospital.

* Only achievements related to clinical laboratory
medicine are shown here, and others overlapping
across affiliations have been omitted. Please refer toeach respective affiliation.
1.  Umbilical cord blood and cord tissue banking
as somatic stem cell resources to support
medical cell modalities.
Tokiko NAGAMURA-INOUE.
Human umbilical cord blood (CB) and umbilicalcord tissue (UC) are attractive sources of somatic stem
cells for gene and cell therapies. UC-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UC-MSCs) have a higher proliferation potency than those derived from adult tissues
and can be used anon-HLA restrictively. We established the off-the-shelf cord blood/cord bank IMSUTCORD to support novel cell therapy modalities, in-cluding the CB-derived immune cells, MSCs,
MSCs-derived extracellular vesicles, biological carriers loaded with chemotherapy drugs, prodrug, oncolytic viruses, nanoparticles, human artificial chromosome, combinational products with a scaffold, bio3D
printing, and so on. [Inflamm Regen. 2023.]
2. Research for quantification of immune function of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T)
cells by use of new molecular imaging flow cytometry (MI-FCM).
Tomohiro ISHIGAKI.
Assays to evaluate CAR T-cell function more sensitively are required in clinical and basic research.
However, conventional methods, such as cytotoxicity
assays and in-vitro cytokine production assays, require a long cell-culture processing time and are less286
quantitative. We focused on the aggregation of CAR
molecules, which is observed after the antigen recognition and the immune response of CAR-T cells. We
established the quantitative assay to analyze thechange in the localization of CAR molecules usingnovel molecular imaging flow cytometry (MI-FCM).
We found the parameter that is highly correlated withkilling activity in various CAR T-cells. Quantifying
the CAR localization in CAR T-cells by MI-FCM could
be useful for evaluating their immune function. [The70th annual meeting of JSLM. 2023.]
3.  Morphological changes in abnormal lymphocytes in a case of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) that transformed from indolent toacute type.
Clinical hematology team, Tomohiro ISHIGAKI,and Tokiko NAGAMURA-INOUE.
Recently, accurate identification of adult T-cellleukemia/lymphoma (ATL) cells has been possible
through methods such as flow cytometry, but cellmorphology diagnosis using microscopy remains
very important in routine clinical practice. Abnormal
lymphocytes in ATL differ from leukemic blast cells,
and their differentiation is often very challenging andrequires expertise. The changes in morphology andstaining (color mixing of CMYK) of abnormal lymphocytes were examined in a case of ATL that transformed from an indolent to an acute type. The results
showed that abnormal lymphocytes with larger cellsize and nucleus size emerged at the time of acutetransformation. There was also an increase in nuclear
indentations and lobulations. While there are limitations in assessing color tone changes visually, it waspossible to significantly detect slight differences incolor tones between normal and abnormal lympho-cytes by using CMYK values for evaluation on thesame specimen. [Motoko Mizukami reported at the70th annual meeting of JSLM. 2023.]
4. Retrospective analysis and search for clinicallaboratory parameters associated with cardiac
deterioration and shorter survival in Becker
Muscular Dystrophy (BMD).
Koichi KIMURA and Tomohiro ISHIGAKI.
Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) is an X-linked
recessive disorder due to a mutation in the dystrophin gene, and is most common in muscular dystrophies. BMD has a later onset and milder symptoms
compared to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD),
but cardiac diseases are now one of the leading causesof morbidity and mortality in these patients. We haveretrospectively reviewed biochemical examination results and echocardiographic findings. We found aclinical laboratory parameter that could be associatedwith cardiac deterioration and shorter survival.
5.  Laboratory contribution as a central medical
department and support for many clinical investigations and trials in this hospital.
Hironori SHIMOSAKA, and Clinical laboratory
members (clinical hematology, biochemistry/serology, physiology, and microbiology team)
We participate in clinical trials and research led byother hospital departments. Our laboratory members
officially contributed to 6 clinical investigations andtrials conducted in this hospital, including treatments
using new drugs and new cell therapy. We also contributed to many other basic and clinical studies.