In order to establish that any modification of macrophage responses observed was not due to compounds affecting cell viability, alveolar macrophages from healthy donors or COPD patients were assessed for apoptosis (Fig 1A–1C) or necrosis (Fig 1D–1F) after treatment with p38 inhibitors SCIO469 and VX745 (Fig 1A and 1D), PI3K inhibitors NVS-PI3-2, NVS-PI3-3 or NVS-PI3-5 (Fig 1B and 1E) or the ROCK inhibitor PF4950834 (Fig 1C and 1F) for 20 h. Here, MAPK14 is linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.