Table 3.

Effect of extensive washing on the inhibitory activity of agonists

	% Inhibition
	Salmeterol	Formoterol	Isoprenaline	PGE2
Unwashed	34±6	47±9	40±10	36±6
Washed	19±5	26±7	3±5	6±3

Cells were incubated with either salmeterol (10⁻⁶ M), formoterol (10⁻⁶ M), isoprenaline (10⁻⁶ M) or PGE₂ (5 × 10⁻⁶ M) for 20 min and the cells were then either washed or not before challenge for 25 min with anti-IgE (1 : 300) for histamine release. Results are expressed as the % inhibition of the control histamine releases and these were 29±2 and 23±3% for unwashed and washed sets. Values are means±s.e.m. from four to five experiments. Washing reduced the inhibitory effects of all agonists to a statistically significant (P<0.05 at least) extent.