CFTR and cystic fibrosis: Cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system, is the most common autosomal recessive disease in Caucasians associated with early death [14, 15]; it is a complex multisystem disease caused by defects in a single gene that is CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator), which encodes for a chloride channel expressed in several epithelia [16].