Several studies have documented that BALF recovered from patients during the early stages of both septic and non-septic ARDS is able to prolong the life span of neutrophils incubated ex vivo and that this effect may be ascribable to elevated levels of cytokines such as granulocyte-colony stimulating factor, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and interleukin (IL)-2 [38-40]. This evidence concerns the gene CSF3 and acute respiratory distress syndrome.