Collection of Blood for Gene Expression Study in Individuals With Chronic Lung Diseases

This protocol is designed to gather a small amount of blood from patients seen in the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center Pulmonary, Critical Care unit, and 5 West floor (Pulmonary Floor) for clinical care associated with chronic lung disease. This protocol will also survey medical records of patients with chronic lung disease, in order to study the clinical characteristics of these individuals. Investigators aim to understand the genetics of chronic lung diseases, and will use the serum and DNA from this blood to perform various genotyping studies such as such as genomic/gene expression studies of individuals with chronic lung diseases.

General admission criteria for this project will require at least one of the following: (1) symptoms consistent with pulmonary disease; (2) chest X-ray consistent with lung disease; (3) pulmonary function tests consistent with lung disease; (4) lung biopsy consistent with lung disease; (5) family history of lung disease; and (6) patients with diseases of organs with known association with lung disease.

The following studies will be conducted on blood specimens: genomic DNA will be extracted; promoter sequences for antioxidant-related genes will be obtained by PCR and sequenced. The goal is to find single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) to see if they correlate with lung disease. DNA samples and blood specimens will be coded. Samples could potentially be traced back to the patient. However, every effort will be made to keep the patient's identity confidential per HIPAA regulations.

The study does not aim to create a blood bank. Rather, the blood samples will be used for DNA extraction only. Serum will be stored for future studies, to look at levels of proteins.