Graduate School of Medicine ＞ Medical Sciences
＞Medicine(Neurology・ Rheumatology・Clinical Immunology)



Professor: Shu-ichi IKEDA
Associate Professor: Masayuki MATSUDA, Kunihiro YOSHIDA, Hiroshi MORITA
Senior Assistant Professor: Masahide YAZAKI, Yasuhiro SHIMOJIMA
Assistant Professor: Kana TOJO

Summary of Activity
Our department has the purpose of developing practical therapeutic strategies and investigating the pathogenic mechanisms in the field of neurology, rheumatology and clinical immunology. We also have been working on the clinical and basic researches in metabolic disorders and amyloidosis. We are additionally managing the general medicine at Shinshu University Hospital. These performances of clinical practice and research in our department are not only focusing on elucidating the pathogenesis of intractable disorders associated with neurology, clinical immunology, metabolic disease and amyloidosis, but also playing an important role of fostering a hopeful medical scientist.


Research Projects
Our research interests are as follows :

1) Elucidation of pathophysiology in cerebrovascular disease.
2) High-dose intravenous administration of melphalan with autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for primary AL amyloidosis patients.
3) Improvement of the therapeutic approach to intractable neuroimmunological disorders.
4) Gene diagnosis of hereditary spinocerebellar degeneration.
5) Establishment of new therapeutic approach and gene diagnosis for muscular dystrophy.
6) Elucidation of pathophysiology in neurological disorders using neurophysiological examination.
7) Liver transplantation and new drug therapies for familial amyloid polyneuropathy patients.
8) Establishment of therapeutic approaches to adult-onset citrullinemia patients.
9) Gene diagnosis and immunological investigation of familial Mediterranean fever.
10) Biopharmaceutical therapy for visceral disorders associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
11) Establishment of new therapeutic strategy with immunosuppressive agents for intractable dermatomyositis.
12) Elucidation of immunological mechanisms in autoimmune diseases using flow cytometry analysis.

 

Fig.1 Cerebral angiography

  

Fig.2 Myelography
References
  1. Tsuchiya-Suzuki A, Yazaki M, Nakamura A, Yamazaki K, Agematsu K, Matsuda M, Ikeda S. (2009) Clinical and genetic features of familial Mediterranean Fever in Japan. J Rheumatol 36:1671-1676.

  2. Yoshida K, Shimizu Y, Morita H, Okano T, Sakai H, Ohata T, Matsumoto N, Nakamura K, Tazawa K, Ohara S, Tabata K, Inoue A, Sato S, Shimojima Y, Hattori T, Ushiyama M, Ikeda S. (2009) Severity and progression rate of cerebellar ataxia in 16q-linked autosomal dominant cerebellar ataxia (16q-ADCA) in the endemic Nagano Area of Japan. Cerebellum 8:46-51.

  3. Nakamura K, Yoshida K, Miyazaki D, Morita H, Ikeda S. (2009) Spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6): clinical pilot trial with gabapentin. J Neurol Sci 278:107-111.

  4. Nakamura A, Yoshida K, Fukushima K, Ueda H, Urasawa N, Koyama J, Yazaki Y, Yazaki M, Sakai T, Haruta S, Takeda S, Ikeda S. (2008) Follow-up of three patients with a large in-frame deletion of exons 45-55 in the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) gene. J Clin Neurosci 15:757-63.

  5. Sekijima Y, Kelly JW, Ikeda S. (2008) Pathogenesis of and therapeutic strategies to ameliorate the transthyretin amyloidoses. Curr Pharm Des 14:3219-30.

  6. Shimojima Y, Morita H, Kobayashi S, Takei Y, Ikeda S. (2008) Ten-year follow-up of peripheral nerve function in patients with familial amyloid polyneuropathy after liver transplantation. J Neurol 255:1220-1225.

  7. Tsuchiya A, Yazaki M, Kametani F, Takei Y, Ikeda S. (2008) Marked regression of abdominal fat amyloid in patients with familial amyloid polyneuropathy during long-term follow-up after liver transplantation. Liver Transpl 14:563-570.

  8. Yazaki M, Mitsuhashi S, Tokuda T, Kametani F, Takei Y, Koyama J, Kawamorita A, Kanno H, Ikeda S. (2007) Progressive wild-type transthyretin deposition after Liver transplantation preferentially occurs onto myocardium in FAP patients. Am J Transplant 7:235-242.

  9. Morita H, Shindo M, Momori H, Yanagawa S, Ikeda S, Yanagisawa N. (2006) Lack of modulation of Ib inhibition during antagonist contraction in spasticity. Neurology 67:52-56.

  10. Tojo K, Sekijima Y, Kelly JW, Ikeda S. (2006) Diflunisal stabilizes familial amyloid polyneuropathy-associated transthyretin variant tetramers in serum against dissociation required for amyloidogenesis. Neurosci Res 56:441-449.