The total vessels staining for TGF-β1 in the Rbm correlated reasonably strongly with number of vessels stained for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, measured in our previous study [24]) only in the S-COPD group, but this did not reach statistical significance (r = 0.6, p = 0.1), but is probably a type 2 error. This evidence concerns the gene TGFB1 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.