Development of in vivo single cell imaging technology for diagnosis of ocular inflammatory diseases

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K19917
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 90:Biomedical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Nakamura Daisuke 九州大学, システム情報科学研究院, 准教授 (40444864)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 園田 康平 九州大学, 医学研究院, 教授 (10294943) ; 八幡 信代 九州大学, 医学研究院, 准教授 (90315812)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 眼炎症性疾患 / 自発蛍光 / 非侵襲診断

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To develop an innovative noninvasive intraocular diagnostic technique that provides new diagnostic information for ocular inflammatory diseases, we aimed to establish a technological basis for imaging that can identify the intrinsic autofluorescence of inflammatory and tumor cells in the eye in real time and at the single cell level. As a result, we found that tumor cells exhibit characteristic autofluorescence compared to normal cells and developed a method to acquire autofluorescence noninvasively and efficiently by using excitation laser light under specific conditions. We proposed a method that combines ultra-sensitive spectroscopic imaging and high-efficiency detection of autofluorescence with slit-lamp microscopy, which is the most widely used ophthalmic instrument in ophthalmology, and identified the possibility of developing a noninvasive ophthalmic examination device that can assist in the diagnosis of ocular inflammatory diseases.

Free Research Field

レーザー工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

従来の細隙灯顕微鏡では眼内浮遊細胞観察が可能だが形態的特徴しか得られない．これに対し，本技術は特殊レーザー光を用いて細胞固有の微弱な自発蛍光を計測することで眼内の腫瘍細胞や炎症細胞の識別を可能とする．非侵襲かつ迅速診断が可能となり，患者に優しく安全な手法となる可能性がある．これにより専門医でも診断が困難で時間を要する眼内悪性リンパ腫の早期スクリーニングや眼炎症性疾患診断の補助となる識別機器の実用化が期待できる．さらに，硝子体生検に伴う医療従事者と患者の負荷低減，患者の合併症リスクといった問題点解決にも大きく貢献すると考えられる．