Review of the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2013, 4–6 December, London, UK

Abstract

This article reviews the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2013, the annual scientific meeting attended by over 2000 delegates and representing the depth and breadth of UK respiratory medicine. This year's meeting from 4 to 6 December in London featured cutting-edge research alongside keynote symposia from international experts in respiratory science, epidemiology and clinical trials. This article reviews the key symposia and selected abstract sessions from the 2013 meeting. INTRODUCTIONFor many the draw of 3 days in London in December would be Oxford Street, leaving with still warm credit cards and multiple bags of Christmas presents. For 2133 delegates, however, the highlight was the British Thoracic Society Winter Meeting 2013, and they left with something far more rewarding and considerably cheaper! This article reviews the important new data presented at this year's meeting. As it is impossible to review 23 major symposia, 149 spoken abstracts and 287 presented posters, we present some of the authors' selected highlights from the British Thoracic Society (BTS) 2013. Early career investigator symposiumA highlight of the BTS meeting each year is the early career investigator symposium, a showcase for the best basic, translational and clinical research submitted to the winter meeting. Six early career investigators gave presentations to a panel of judges from the BTS, British Lung Foundation (BLF) and British Association of Lung Research (BALR), hoping to win one of the prestigious awards.The BTS prize was won by Dr Liam Hurst from Cambridge, who presented in vivo and in vitro evidence that tumour necrosis factor-α down-regulated expression of bone morphogenetic protein receptor II (BMPR-II) in vitro and increased expression of ADAM 10 and 17. These cleaved BMPR-II to further impair BMP signalling.1 BMPR-II mutations are present in a substantial proportion of patients with familial pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and BMP signalling is thought to be very important in idiopathic PAH.2 This work demonstrates a link between inflammation and pulmonary artery smooth muscle proliferation, suggesting TNF-α inhibition as a therapeutic approach in PAH.The BLF prize was awarded to Dr Belton from Imperial College London, who presented a fascinating mechanistic study into the role of hypoxia in regions of pulmonary tuberculosis infection. Using PET-CT with the hypoxia tracer 18F FMISO, severe hypoxia was demonstrated in pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) lesions. Hypoxia increased MMP-1 and MMP-9 in bronchial epithelial cells, an effect that was dependent on the hypoxia regulator hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) 1α. The BALR prize was awarded to Dr Ourradi from Bristol, who investigated the role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) isoforms in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and human lung microvascular endothelial cells treated with two different VEGF isoforms. The researchers demonstrated differential effects of the alternative spliced products on vascular permeability, suggesting an al...

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