教室紹介

The Division of Transfusion founded by Prof. Hitoshi Ohto in 1987 evolved to become the Division of Blood Transfusion and Transplantation Immunology. In those early years, we pioneered universal irradiation of allogeneic cellular blood products to mitigate transfusion-associated graft-versus host disease (TA-GVHD), because transfusions among Japanese are more likely than other populations to involve a causative one-way HLA match.

In 2010, our team was recognized not only as a division of FMU's hospital, but also as an academic entity, the Department of Blood Transfusion and Transplantation Immunology in our medical school. Professor Ohto's promotion to General Vice President of FMU prompted a national search leading to the appointment of Dr. Kazuhiko Ikeda as our new Professor and Chair, as of October 2017.

With "transfusion is transplant" as a mantra, we teach students that, while solid organ transplantation poses many technical and surgical challenges, blood transfusion should be respected for its own complexities. Our long history of safely collecting, testing, and processing blood for transfusion has positioned us to be leaders in hematopoietic cell therapy and transplant compatibility testing as well. We aim to advance the safety and efficiency of transfusion, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, organ transplantation, emerging cellular therapies, and new laboratory methods related to each of these patient-oriented activities. To these ends, we study the basic biological characteristics of hematopoietic stem cells, along with phenomena related to cell collection, storage, management, infusion, and engraftment. Meanwhile, immune reactions to transfusion and transplantation, as well as other adverse events, continue to command our attention. We aspire to publish results that advance research and clinical practice worldwide.