We thought that if elastin peptides were bound to C3b because they were presented as an auto-antigen, activating T cells, then we should also find IgG to elastin in the serum of patients that manifested early on-set of COPD (EO-COPD), we included for this study a total of 49 participants, 21 EO-COPD and compared them to 28 control, normal subjects. The gene discussed is C3; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.