IL7R and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Consistent with this, after numeralization of the GOLD stage (0, GOLD 1; 1, GOLD II; 2, GOLD III; 3, GOLD IV), we showed that while high and moderate expression of lnc-IL7R is associated with no/mild COPD (GOLD I) and moderate COPD (GOLD II), patients with severe cases (GOLD III, IV) were lnc-IL7R negative (Figure 3B).