FIGURE 3.

Secreted β-defensin (HBD)2 from normal epithelial cell cultures shows antibacterial activity against nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi). Normal and COPD bronchial epithelial cell cultures (established from n=6 normal and n=6 COPD patients) were treated with FSL-1 or PBS (control) and incubated for 24 h. a) The apical secretions were then collected, incubated with NTHi (1×10⁶ CFU) for 2 h, and the number of viable bacteria was determined by dilution plating. Data represent median with range and the statistical significance analysed by ANOVA on ranks with Kruskal–Wallis post hoc H-test. b) Normal bronchial epithelial cell cultures transduced with nontargeting (NT) or HBD2 short hairpin (sh)RNA were treated with PBS (control) or FSL-1 and the antibacterial activity of apical secretions was measured. c) Levels of HBD2 protein in the apical secretions was measured by ELISA. b) and c) Data represent mean±sd calculated from two independent experiments conducted in triplicate. Statistical significance was calculated by ANOVA with Tukey's post hoc test.