Progress in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease genetics.

Familial aggregation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been demonstrated, suggesting that genetic factors likely influence the variable development of chronic airflow obstruction in response to smoking. A variety of approaches have been used to identify novel COPD susceptibility genes, including association studies, linkage analysis, and rare variant analysis. Future directions for COPD research include genomewide association studies and animal model genetic studies.