Yosuke Wada

I was very honoured and grateful to receive the APSR Young Investigator Travel Award at the APSR Congress 2019 in Hanoi. This was the first time for me to attend the APSR Congress and I was impressed by various topics and recent studies from all over the world.

My presentation was about reduction of antioxidant activity in rats of emphysema, with pulmonary hypertension induced by SU5416/Hypoxia. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected subcutaneously with SU5416 on days 1, 8 and 15, and exposed to hypoxia for 6 weeks. Pulmonary hemodynamics was measured on day 42 of the first SU5416 injection, and then the rats were sacrificed for the histological examination and lung tissue sampling. The airspace size was quantified by the mean linear intercept (MLI). Serum antioxidant activity was measured by the bio antioxidant power (BAP) test and Diacron-Reactive Oxygen Metabolites (d-ROMs) test using the Free Radical Elective Evaluation FRAS4 system. The VEGF level in lung tissues was measured by ELISA. The SU5416/hypoxia rats showed enlargement of airspaces, suggesting formation of emphysema in comparison to the control group. As expected, the rats treated with SU5416/hypoxia presented pulmonary hypertension with increased mean pulmonary arterial pressure. Moreover, the serum antioxidant activity was significantly decreased with the significant reduction of VEGF levels in lung tissues in these SU5416/hypoxia rats. The rats treated with VEGF receptor inhibitor and concomitantly exposed to hypoxia developed emphysema with pulmonary hypertension. The reductions of antioxidant ability and VEGF level may involve with the mechanisms of the emphysema with pulmonary hypertension in the model of SU5416/hypoxia rats.

During the Congress, not only our oral session, but also many sessions such as posters, lectures and symposia, gave me a new perspective of target molecules, prognostic factors and therapies of respiratory diseases. Again, I appreciated that the APSR gave me this wonderful and precious experience as well as the honour of a travel grant of this Young Investigator Award.

I sincerely hope to attend the APSR Congress again in the future.

Yosuke Wada

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Dr Chau Ngo Quy (left) and Dr Yosuke Wada (right)