Gene-environment interactions in the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

The completion of the Human Genome Project, the HapMap project, technological advances in single-nucleotide-polymorphism genotyping and the potential of genome-wide association analysis will allow the identification of susceptibility genes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The challenge is to understand the influence of multiple genetic factors and multiple environmental factors as well as gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. Careful clinical characterization of phenotypes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is essential and this will include comparison of biomarkers of distinct pathologies including radiological assessment to separate the components of pulmonary emphysema and small-airway disease.