CXCL8 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: In parallel, neutrophils are increased in blood (Gunay et al., 2014), BALF (Lacoste et al., 1993; Traves et al., 2002), and sputum (Keatings et al., 1996; Pesci et al., 1998; Leckie et al., 2003) from COPD patients, probably as a result of enhanced CXCL-8/IL-8 release from activated epithelial cells and alveolar macrophages.