TRPV4 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: As CS-induced injury to AECs triggers production and releasing of cytokines, which lead to recruitment of macrophages and neutrophils, participating in the development and progression of COPD (Brusselle et al., 2011; Tuder and Petrache, 2012; Barnes, 2013), we explored whether TRPV4 was possibly involved in this process.