Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by blood reperfusion to ischemic organs induce severe ischemia-reperfusion injury in marginal grafts, resulting in graft dysfunction. Removal of “bad” ROS generated during reperfusion is key to long-term graft survival, as it also increases the risk of graft failure in the chronic phase. Previous attempts to eliminate “bad” ROS using various antioxidants have failed because they also disrupt the redox response in normal cells, resulting in total cell death. The highly safe self-assembling antioxidant nanoparticles (redox nanoparticles, RNPs) we have developed can “selectively” remove the “bad” ROS produced during ischemia-reperfusion, thereby suppressing ischemia-reperfusion injury. The usefulness of RNP has been demonstrated not only in ischemia-reperfusion models such as cerebral infarction-reperfusion, but also in models of ulcerative colitis, dementia, and radiation injury, in which oxidative stress caused by ROS is the primary cause. Now that we have demonstrated the efficacy of RNPs in liver ischemia-reperfusion models, we plan to expand this study to the field of organ transplantation.

Advances in the multidisciplinary treatments improved survival rates, prognosis, and quality of life of critically ill pediatric patients. However, the availability of these highly specialized treatments is limited to large cities with pediatric intensive care units (PICUs), and the seriously ill patients in rural regions often need to be transferred. The ideal solution to this problem is the development of air ambulance services equipped with emergency medical care provided by a specialist doctor. The author established the Japan Critical Care Jet Network (JCCN) in 2022 and started an operation project for fixed-wing aircraft transport of severely ill pediatric patients on 1 April 2024. To date, JCCN has transported six cases of pediatric patients. This review describes the history and current status of patient transport by aircraft and introduces the activities of the JCCN.