Airway Mucins in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic bronchitis, also known as chronic mucus hypersecretion, is common in cigarette smokers and is a key component of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). After the publication of the seminal study by Fletcher and Peto in the 1970s,1 chronic bronchitis was recognized as being associated with cigarette smoking and conferring a predisposition to lower respiratory infections, but was reported as not influencing the progressive airway obstruction that is characteristic of COPD.2 However, a number of later studies showed that chronic bronchitis was indeed not a benign feature of COPD and was clearly linked to disease progression, hospital admission, and mortality.3 . . .