While a clinical link between human ascariasis and COPD phenotypes has yet to be described, a mouse model of Nippostrongylus braziliensis, the rat hookworm routinely used as a surrogate of human hookworm in animal models, suggests similar emphysematous findings as described in this study, including the presence of hemosiderin-laden macrophages and high MMP-12 expression in mouse lungs[47]. This evidence concerns the gene MMP12 and ascariasis.