HES1, as confirmed in a previous work [10], were abundantly expressed in bronchial and also in bronchiolar epithelium, as here reported, even though they were not significantly upregulated in COPD and showed very significant expression levels, whereas, in the peripheral airways and in the lamina propria of bronchial biopsies, Notch4 and HES7 were upregulated. Here, HES7 is linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.