Apoptosis-good or bad in lung disease

A technique called parametric response mapping (PRM) scans the lungs of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD, Already we know that COPD limits a patient's breathing ability, causing shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and become disabled as their disease worsens occur due to smoking, long-term exposure to dust, and certain gases and chemicals. The following PRM images show four different patients’ lungs-healthy lung areas (green), early-stage damage (yellow) and emphysema (red).

In the last week seminar,there was a question raised "if apoptosis is good or bad" in related to this lung disease.Hence i quoted the text from Demedts et al "apoptosis of structural cells in the lung might possibly be an important upstream event in the pathogenesis of COPD. There is an increase in apoptotic alveolar epithelial and endothelial cells in the lungs of COPD patients. Since this is not counterbalanced by an increase in proliferation of these structural cells, the net result is destruction of lung tissue and the development of emphysema".http://respiratory-research.com/content/7/1/53