MPO and metabolic syndrome: We have previously investigated serum inflammatory, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular biomarkers and found them to be predictors of FEV1 decline and WTC-LI.[11], [13], [22], [23] More specifically, we found that myeloperoxidase (MPO) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule (sVCAM) can predict recovery from the original injury.[24] These results demonstrate that patho-physiological processes in the lung caused by dust and smoke exposure are reflected by biologically active protein expression in serum.