NFKB1 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: In the clinical setting, hypoxia may contribute to the systemic inflammation associated with a number of diseases (i.e. COPD, OSAS and heart failure) (Eltzschig and Carmeliet, 2011), most likely by a direct activation of NF-kB or through HIF-1 (Eltzschig and Carmeliet, 2011; Bruning et al., 2012).