Inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its role in cardiovascular disease and lung cancer

Clinical and Translational Medicine

Table 1 Common inflammatory cells/mediators in COPD, CVD and lung cancer

	COPD	CVD	Lung cancer
Inflammatory cell
Macrophage	Primary producer of inflammatory mediators in COPD, M1/M2 function	Major producer of inflammatory mediators, important in plaque rupture	Primary inflammatory cell in lung cancer, TAM1/TAM2 function
Neutrophil	Key role in exacerbations, produces IL-8, elastase	May have role in precipitating acute coronary events	Proinflammatory, produces IL-8, elastase
T cell	Key driver of inflammation in advanced disease, major source of cytokines	Infiltration of plaques	CD8+ cells important in killing tumor cells, secretor of cytokines
Inflammatory mediator
TNF-α	Marked proinflammatory effect	Proinflammatory, affects endothelial function	Proinflammatory, promotes carcinogenesis
IL-1	Proinflammatory effect	Proinflammatory, affects endothelial function	Enhances tumorigenesis and ROS/proteases
IL-6	Proinflammatory effect	Proinflammatory affects endothelial function	Enhances tumorigenesis (STAT3), inflammation
ROS	Damages lung tissue	Proinflammatory, damages endothelium	Damages DNA, enhances tumorigenesis
Proteases	Causes emphysema	Role in plaque instability	Promote tumor angiogenesis/metastasis

COPD chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, CVD cardiovascular disease, M1/M2 types one and two macrophage subsets, TAM tumor-associated macrophages, IL interleukin, TNF-α tumor necrosis factor alpha, STAT signal transducers and activators of transcription, ROS reactive oxygen species.