Foundation and progress of Japanese society of toxicologic pathology*.

The Japanese Society of Toxicologic Pathology (JSTP) has a differing conceptual framework from the Japanese Society of Pathology (JSP) and Japanese Society of Toxicology (JST) and was founded in 1985 by the leadership of late Dr. Yasukazu Nishiyama with the cooperation of several founding members and the support of JSP. The aim of the JSTP is to improve the human and animal health using an interdisciplinary scientific approach based on pathology and toxicology. In its development as a professional society, the JSTP has established society rules and activities. The JSTP has grown in terms of membership and financial aspects and is now recognized not only domestically but also internationally as a well-organized scientific society. To maintain the high professional standard and visibility of JSTP, we here provide the historical background of the society as a basis for current members to contribute to the continued improvement of our scientific organization.

Introduction

Since the 1980’s various scientific specialties have appreciated the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration in the advancement of science. Pathology has and continues to play an important role in diagnosis and treatment of human disease. The Japanese Society of Pathology (JSP), founded in 1911, will celebrate its 100 anniversary this year. Toxicology is a scientific discipline that investigates and elucidates toxic phenomenon induced by various environmental agents but without specific evaluation of morphologic changes seen in the target tissue. The importance of toxicology was strongly pointed out internationally after severe health tragedies such as congenital malformations induced by thalidomide, Minamata disease induced by methyl mercury, Itai-Itai disease induced by cadmium, chinoform-induced subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy (SMON) disease, and the Kanemi oil poisoning induced by coplanar polychlorinated biphenyl (Co-PCB) or polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDF). These events were driving forces leading to the 1981 founding of the Japanese Society of Toxicological Science (JSTS), later renamed in 1997 as the Japanese Society of Toxicology (JST). Toxicologic Pathology is the relatively new area of science that combines toxicology and pathology, not only diagnostic pathology but also defining morphological lesions induced by environmental chemicals including pharmaceutical drugs. The Japanese Society of Toxicologic Pathology (JSTP) was founded 1985. However, the genesis and history as well as the rules and activities of the JSTP are not readily appreciated by some younger pathologists. Here, we introduce the historical background of JSTP with the some of the events in its early growth.

Symposium and the First Meeting

Prior to founding the JSTP, the subject of toxicological pathology as a scientific field had been presented at a JST meeting; but the pathology was not understood and not of enough interest to JST members since the members mainly consisted of pharmacologists and scientists without formal training or understanding of pathology. Consequently, some founding members of JSTP approached JSP and obtained the agreement and support for establishing the JSTP. This agreement encouraged founding members and Drs. Yasukazu Nishiyama and Eisei Ishikawa who were M.D. pathology members of JSP to join JSTP as founding members.

Table1 shows the original founding members and those scientists serving as the executive committee (EC). Dr. Nishiyama was elected as the first president of JSTP (Fig. 1). However, funding was not available for EC activities or for preparation costs for a symposium and a meeting. We owe our appreciation to Dr. Norikazu Inomata, former director of the research institute of Lederly Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., for his cooperation including providing financial support for JSTP expenses. In 1985 the symposium as the 1st meeting was held at Kitasato University where Dr. Nishiyama was the president of the university and in 1986 the second meeting was held at Tokyo University that was organized by Dr. Kosaku Fujiwara (Fig. 2). Both the symposium and the meeting were successful thanks to the great support from the International Life Science Institute (ILSI). Worldwide famous pathologists from the U.S. and Germany and the faculty of the ILSI histopathology seminar gave very impressive lectures. These successes encouraged the founding members to further develop the field of Toxi- cologic Pathology in Japan. It was decided that an annual meeting should be held in different places each year with alternate organizers representing M.D. toxicologic pathologists and non-M.D. toxicologic pathologists. That decision has been kept up to the present time.

Table 1.

The List of Founding Members

Fig. 1.

Late Dr. Yasukazu Nishiyama. The first president of JSTP.

Fig. 2.

Late Dr. Kosaku Fujiwara. The organizer of the second JSTP annual meeting.

Relation to ILSI

ILSI is a non-profitable scientific organization with headquarters located in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Arranging histopathology seminars was one of activities of ILSI. In the early 1980, the literature and terminology of animal pathology was diverse and inconsistent. The aim of the histopathology seminars was to improve understanding and agreement among toxicologic pathologists, to adopt consistent nomenclature, and to determine the relevance of data derived from animal studies for predicting effects in humans. The faculty for the first seminar class consisted of famous M.D. pathologists. To ensure the personal and individual nature of the seminars and, at the same time, reduce the travel time and cost for participants, each seminar in the series of organ sites would be rotated between Germany, the U.S. and Japan. The seminar was actually organized by late Dr. Thomas C. Jones, Harvard Medical School in Boston, Dr. Ulrich Mohr, Hannover Medical School in Hannover, and Dr. Yoichi Konishi, Nara Medical University (Fig. 3). The first seminar on the endocrine system was held in September 1981 at Hannover, Germany. The seminar in Japan began in April, 1983 at Nara, and two months later in Boston, U.S.A. Each histopathology seminar included a one-night mixer where participants felt in a relaxing atmosphere to speak English, and this facilitated use of English conversation for Japanese participants. In addition to the seminar, the participants received the Kodachrome histological slides (Fig. 4). ILSI also published the series of books entitled Monographs on the Pathology of Laboratory Animals by Dr. T.C. Jones as the chief editor (Fig. 5). These books are very useful for not only bench pathologists but also toxicologic pathologists in general, and also, help provide an understand of the similarity and difference between lesions seen in animals and humans. The participants from JSTP to the ILSI histopathology seminar were given special points from JSTP. Unfortunately, the seminar was stopped in 1999 after 17 years because of the retirement of the organizers. To administer the seminar, we acknowledge special thanks to Mr. Fumitake Fukutomi, Coca Cola Japan Co., Ltd. for his great efforts on the behalf of not only the faculty but also the participants. Actually, the success of ILSI seminar gave rise to the idea to initiate development of a histopathology conference organized by JSTP. The big difference between the seminars by ILSI and JSTP was that ILSI seminar was always contained a world-wide famous M.D. pathologists for each organ site as a speaker to explain the similarities and differences of the lesions seen between animals and humans. The JSTP histopathology conference did not include a world famous M.D. pathologist as a major speaker.

Fig. 3.

ILSI histopathology seminar organizers. Drs. Yoichi Konishi, T.C. Jones and Ulrich Mohr.

Fig. 4.

An example of Koda-chrome histopathology slides given to the participants.

Fig. 5.

ILSI monographs take an organ-system approach to animal pathology

Development of JSTP Rules

To be recognized as scientific society, the JSTP needed to establish several rules to administer the society. The first thing related to the membership. It was decided that JSTP should be comprised of one president, several ECs, councilors, and general members. The numbers of JSTP members and supporting companies as the function of time is shown in Fig 6. When initially founded, the number of JSTP members was 135; the number increased thereafter to 969 and the number of supporting companies was 71 in 2001 and 48 in 2010. The occupational distribution of JSTP members is shown in Fig 7. The financial data for JSTP is shown in Fig 8. The blue diamond shows the breakdown of total income consisting of membership, certification examination and renewal fees and has been relatively stable. Then, we set up a rule that the budget and final report would be provided to the JSTP members to obtain needed agreement at the general assembly since the final decisions regarding finances and subjects raised by various committees belongs to the entire JSTP membership. The present working committees include general affairs, board certification, publication, education, membership, communication, and international activities. Each committee must work independently for a specific purpose under the president and provide information to the members. The duty period and retirement age of the committee including the president were ruled out to make more democratic society.

Fig. 6.

Number of JSTP members and supporting companies as the function of periods.

Fig. 7.

Occupational distribution of JSTP members.

Fig. 8.

Financial aspects of JSTP as the function of periods.

JSTP Activities

Activities and discussions being developed or underway within individual committees emphasize the following:

Publication

Publication of the JSTP journal is considered most important for advertizing JSTP internationally. Dr. Ishikawa was elected as the first editor-in-chief based on his good experiences as the editor-in chief of Pathology International, the Journal of JSP. When first launched JSTP Journal accepted manuscripts written in both Japanese and English at the beginning period but now the journal publishes only in English (Fig 9). He also started to publish JSTP news letters in 1998 and it continues publish to the present time by different editor in chief. Recently, the editorial committee began to provide a highly efficient web-based manuscript submission and review system including tracking and communication between authors, reviewers and the editor. In addition to publishing the journal, a textbook entitled Toxicologic Histopathology was edited by JSTP in 2000. This book is now under revision by the JSTP revision committee.

Fig. 9.

Journal of Toxicologic Pathology, the first and recent issues.

Histopathology conference

This activity was started independently from ILSI. The conference has been held 1 day before the JSTP annual meeting with an organ site program. However, the conference seminar as given only includes spontaneous or induced lesions seen in animals but does not include lesions seen in humans. The attendant fee is independent from participant fee for the annual meeting. Every year about 100 individuals have attended and received digital versions of the histology on a CD.

Continuing education

This activity has been planned and administered by the education committee and a seminar is held every year at different places. The committee decides on a different topic each year in not only the toxicologic pathology field but also in other scientific fields. The educational lectures are a fantastic training opportunity for nascent but also experienced toxicologic pathologists to learn about recent advances or newly discovered basic subjects in the medical field. Unfortunately, no universities currently conduct special teaching programs in toxicological pathology in Japan.

International committee

This committee was set up on 2010. It is working with International Harmonization of Nomenclature and Diagnostic Criteria (INHAND) and Regulatory Interaction Committee (RIC) by discussions with the representatives from regional STPs. This is needed for the committee to obtain international academic information and thereby allow for the progression and quality of science within the JSTP.

Certification System

This is one of JSTP activities that was developed specifically by JSTP in advance of certification by other regional STPs and therefore, it is described separately. To foster and improve the quality of toxicologic pathologists, the board of certification committee was organized and a written-test has been provided every year starting in 1993. The qualification of JSTP members hoping to take the examination include being a JSTP member for more than 5 years, being given evaluation points based on publications, participating in meeting activities and attendance of JSTP histopathology conference or ILSI slide seminars, and having at least one publication in the Journal of Toxicologic Pathology. Once becoming a JSTP diplomate, the certification must be renewed every 5 years. At the present time, the IFSTP is paying attention to the Japanese system and trying to establish the certification system to globally recognize toxicologic pathologists. The number of JSTP diplomates is 330 out of 969 total members (34%) as of 2010.

Join to IFSTP

IFSTP was formed 1989 and is now well-known organization consisting of regional STPs in North and South American, Britain, EU, India, Korea and Japan. Dr. Michael J. Iatropoulas, presently at New York Medical Collage, had the great idea to unify regional STPs and developed the concept of the IFSTP. He visited Japan and had discussions with the late Dr. Nobuyuki Ito (Fig. 10) about the possibility of holding the first IFSTP meeting in Japan. Dr. Ito agreed to organize the meeting in Nagoya. The meeting entitled Current Method for the Evaluation of Pathology in Toxicology was held on 22–24, April 1992 (Fig. 11). The meeting was successful because in addition to 3 symposia, 70 posters from both Japan and other countries were presented. Rules and guidelines were developed over the ensuing years. Now the meetings are rotated in EU and the U.S. and Asia once every 3 years and the combined meeting of 20th annual JSTP meeting chaired Dr. Shoji Fukushima and 5th IFSTP meeting chaired by Dr. Yoichi Konishi was held on 15–18, February, 2004 in Kobe (Fig. 12) and Dr. Konishi served as IFSTP president for 3 years. Therefore, JSTP has been a main member of IFSTP and is contributing positively to IFSTP activities including the international standardization of nomenclature of the lesions seen in animals. All JSTP diplomates are belonging to the IFSTP. One representative from JSTP serves on the EC of IFSTP, participates in EC meetings and provides information on international progress in research directions and regulations to JSTP members. The international Academy of Toxicologic Pathologists (IATP) was founded in 1999 by IFSTP as “an organ” of IFSTP. The IATP consists of individual scientists called Fellows whose careers are reviewed and judged by the audit committee. After the registration of IATP in New York State, IATP changed its status and declared independence from IFSTP. The annual meeting has been held at least once per year during STP annual meetings in the U.S. and also in conjunction with some recent ESTP meetings.

Fig. 10.

Late Dr. Nobuyuki Ito, the first president of IFSTP.

Fig. 11.

Introduction of the first IFSTP meting in Nagoya.

Fig. 12.

Introduction of combined 20th JSTP and 5th IFSTP meeting in Kobe.

Future Perspective

Over the years, JSTP has achieved exceptional success with increasing members and maintaining reasonable finances making it possible to organize various committees and to perform domestic and international activities. It is almost unnecessary to describe that the aim of JSTP members in the advancement of pathology is to contribute to the improvement of human and animal health using an interdisciplinary scientific approach based in pathology and toxicology. To achieve this aim, further improvement of the society rules and qualified activities are required. It may be the time to change the society from informal organization to a more formal and legal corporate organization. Pathology has been undergoing revolutionary changes based on the rapid advances of molecular biology. However, molecular biology approaches have not included enough toxicologic pathology in terms of the mechanisms of toxicity and carcinogenicity and a basic understanding of biological processes. In addition, a sufficient number of original scientific articles have not been published in our journal and there is a lack of articles dealing with regulatory issues in the journal. JSTP members should take pride in our Journal and actively submit high quality manuscripts to continue to foster high quality science in Japan. Continuing education is also a most important issue for the JSTP members and actively exchanging information on similarities and differences between animal and human pathology (comparative pathology) is also needed. Finally, in order to remain contemporarily relevant, the JSTP must anticipate and prepare the necessary responses to rapidly evolving scientific and social changes.

Summary

Historical aspects of the foundation and progress of the Japanese Society Toxicologic Pathology (JSTP) is presented. JSTP has a 27 year history in its successfully growth. Such success would have never been achieved without the important advice and the voluntary spirit and efforts made by various Japanese and foreign scientists in the early establishment of the JSTP. JSTP members should make the further progress of this society in terms of better scientific activities. Knowing the history and analyzing the present situation of JSTP are important for younger JSTP members to chart future direction and maintain the high professional standard and visibility of the JSTP.