Takiguchi H, Chen V, Obeidat M, et al. - In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), gene expression signature related to short-term oral prednisone treatment was investigated in this study. Also, its link with 1-year death after an acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) was inquired. Including 37 stable COPD patients, a prednisone cohort was used, with random assignment of patients to prednisone 30 mg/d + standard therapy for 4 days or standard therapy alone. Comprising 218 COPD patients who suffered AECOPD and received systemic corticosteroids, the Rapid Transition Program (RTP) cohort was also included. At a false discovery rate of <  0.05, 51 genes that were differentially expressed between prednisone and standard therapy group were identified in the prednisone cohort. Killer cell lectin-like receptor subfamily F, member 1, granzyme H and adhesion G protein-coupled receptor G1 were discovered as the top 3 genes with the largest fold-variations. Significant links with 1-year mortality were shown by 10 genes including CX3CR1, killer cell lectin-like receptor subfamily D, member 1, S1PR5 and PRF1, in the RTP cohort. In this study, a distinct blood gene signature, that may be used for the determination as well as monitoring of treatment responses to prednisone in COPD patients during AECOPD, was offered by short-term daily prednisone therapy.