CXCL9 and CXCL12 are activated in the lung in human COPD.

Pulmonary diseases of the lower respiratory tract including emphysema and COPD are a leading cause of death in humans.  Description of the transcriptional landscape within which the disease entity operates permits development of novel therapeutics and therapeutic strategies.  We describe here induction of chemokines CXCL9 and CXCL12 in the lungs of humans with COPD. In the lungs, CXCL9 was co-regulated with CCL4, a chemokine ligand whose induction in the lung we recently described. The data point to a pathological setting centered on tissue damage resulting from an inflammatory loop whose major salient features are induction of IL-1b and TNFa, indicating cytokine and chemokine based intervention strategies will be viable in re-establishing homeostasis in the lung.