SOCS5 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: To determine whether SOCS5 expression -was functionally linked to pathogenicity, hAECs were cultured from healthy individuals or COPD patients and SOCS5 either reduced using siRNA (SOCS5-si) or increased by transient transfection (SOCS5) (Figure 6C–F and Figure 6—figure supplements 1 and 2).