Figure 5.

Basement membrane thickness in patients with mild asthma and controls. Bronchial biopsies from controls (n = 5) (A), patients with mild asthma with (+) BALF fibroblasts (n = 5) (B) and patients with mild asthma without (-) BALF fibroblasts (n = 4) (C) were stained with Gomoris trichrome staining for basic morphological characterization. Measurement of basement membrane thickness was performed as described in the Method section and is presented in μm (D). Number of fibrocytes in area A+B were counted and correlated (r = 0.711) to thickness of basement membrane (μm) (E). Values are presented as means ± SEM. Spearman coefficient of rank correlation was used to calculate the degree of association between basement membrane thickness and number of fibrocytes. (▲ patients with BALF fibroblasts, ▪ patients without BALF fibroblasts, ● controls). Definition of abbreviations: BM = Basement membrane, E = epithelium, MF = Muscle fibers.