We were interested in looking at the effects of CSE on the epithelium and found that using primary epithelial cells from patients with COPD and healthy controls: (1) COPD-AEC have increased basal levels of apoptosis and that exposure to CSE increases caspase activity in healthy and COPD-AEC; (2) CSE increases proliferation and IL-8 release in a concentration-dependent manner although intriguingly, IL-8 release by COPD-AEC was significantly lower than normal-AEC. The gene discussed is CXCL8; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.