Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease that affects the lungs and is defined by a variety of symptoms that combined with co-morbidities lead to a decline of the patients quality of life. The principal etiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is smoking and air pollution that lead to oxidative and carbonyl stress. This review based on a search of PubMed, OxLIP+/SOLO (Bodleian Libraries) database (from 1991 to 2017) of relevant articles based on assessment of oxidative stress pathways involvement in COPD. Intracellular reactions that take place in organisms and aerobic cells have as by-products reactive oxygen species (ROS) and free radicals. Oxidative stress involved in pathogenesis of COPD is the result of lowered antioxidative potential combined with increased burden of oxidants. Molecular mechanisms underlying COPD pathways are not yet well understood, despite intensive research all over the world. A change in balance between Oxidants and antioxidants in the lungs as well as within the circulatory system, gene polymorphisms, and activation of transcription factors contribute to the molecular pathogenesis of COPD. Future research is needed in order to identify which patients will develop in time a susceptibility to damage caused by ROS and to determine if controlling ROS will have an effect on the progression of COPD.
Keywords: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; oxidative stress; reactive oxygen species.