Table 1.
Patient characteristics.
Fig 1.
Differences in cell and cytokine levels in BAL fluids in healthy controls vs. asthma.
(A) Percentages of eosinophils and neutrophils in the BAL fluids. (B) Concentrations of IL-1RA, IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-2Rα, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, G-CSF, CXCL1, CCL4, CXCL9, CCL5, and TRAIL in the BAL fluids. Data are expressed as means ± SEM. * = P < .05, ** = P < .01, *** = P < .001, **** = P < .0001.
Table 2.
Cellular and cytokine profile in BAL fluid without statistical difference between subjects with asthma and healthy controls.
Fig 2.
Correlation of FEV1 to eosinophil, neutrophil, IL-5 and IL-8 levels in asthma.
(A) Percentages of neutrophils and concentrations of IL-8 in BAL fluids of subjects with controlled asthma and uncontrolled asthma. (B) Correlations of concentrations of IL-8 with the percentages of neutrophils in the BAL fluid from all subjects with asthma (left panel). Correlation of percentages of neutrophils and concentrations of IL-8 in BAL fluid with percent predicted FEV1 (middle and right panels, respectively). (C) Correlation of concentrations of IL-5 with the percentages of eosinophil in the BAL fluid from all subjects with asthma (left panel). Correlation of percentages of eosinophils and concentrations of IL-5 in BAL fluid with percent predicted FEV1 (middle and right panels, respectively). Data are expressed as means ± SEM. * = P < .05, ** = P < .01, *** = P < .001, **** = P < .0001.
Fig 3.
Cell and cytokine profile of eosinophil-high (Eos-High) asthma and eosinophil-normal (Eos-Normal) asthma.
The upper limit of percent of eosinophils in the BAL fluid of healthy subjects was 0.3%. We separated all subjects with asthma into either eosinophil-high (eosinophils > 0.3%) and eosinophil-normal (eosinophils≤0.3%) groups. Compared to Eos-Normal asthma, Eos-High asthma had higher levels of IL-5 (p<0.05), IL-13 (p<0.05), IL-16 (p<0.05), and PDGF-bb (p<0.05), but same % neutrophils, IL-8, and FEV1. Data are expressed as means ± SEM. *P < .05, **P < .01.
Fig 4.
Cell and cytokine profile of neutrophil-high (Neu-High) asthma and neutrophil-normal (Neu-Normal) asthma.
The upper limit of percent of neutrophils in the BAL fluid of healthy subjects was 2.4%. We separated all subjects with asthma into neutrophil-high (neutrophils% > 2.4%), and neutrophil-normal (neutrophil≤2.4%) groups. Compared to Neu-Normal asthma, Neu-High asthma had higher IL-8 levels (p<0.01) and lower % predicted FEV1 (p<0.01), but similar levels of eosinophil %, IL-5, IL-13, IL-16, and PDGF-bb. Data are expressed as means ± SEM. *P < .05, **P < .01.