VEGFC and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: The levels of VEGF-C were significantly increased after hypoxia in lung fibroblasts from both healthy subjects (p = 0.046) and COPD patients (p = 0.041) (Fig. 3b), whereas stimuli with TGF-β significantly reduced the response to hypoxia in lung fibroblasts from both healthy subjects (p = 0.0323) and COPD patients (p = 0.0064) (Fig. 3b).