GADD45A and acute respiratory distress syndrome: We relied on complementary approaches including the use of GADD45a promoter deletion constructs in endothelial cells (EC) subjected to cyclic stretch (CS) to determine regions harboring mechanical stress response elements (MSRE) followed by ALI case-control association studies focused on specific promoter regions of interest to identify GADD45a SNPs that are associated with both functional effects on GADD45a promoter activity in response to mechanical stress and ALI clinically.