AGER and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: RAGE causes an unfavorable proinflammatory state implicated in multiple pathways and diseases: inflammatory diseases, rheumatic or autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and its complications, obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, atherosclerosis, neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cancer.