Table II.

Cytokine concentrations (pg/mL) in the BAL fluid. Data represent the mean ± SD, with minimum and maximum concentrations shown in parentheses.

	Adult control (n = 30)	Moderate asthma (n = 22)	Severe asthma (n = 31)	Wilks’ lambda1	p-value2
IL-1β	0 (0–0.01)	0.07 ± 0.07a (0–0.23)	0.06 ± 0.07a (0–0.36)	0.742	< 0.001*
IL-2	0.05 ± 0.08 (0–0.37)	0.07 ± 0.05 (0–0.21)	0.08 ± 0.11 (0–0.62)	0.975	0.386
IL-4	0.53 ± 0.73 (0–2.76)	0.65 ± 0.84 (0–2.40)	0.55 ± 0.74 (0–2.08)	0.950	0.798
IL-5	0.06 ± 0.16 (0–0.75)	0.29 ± 0.56 (0–2.03)	0.39 ± 1.03 (0–4.53)	0.947	0.225
IL-6	0.59 ± 0.48 (0.18–2.11)	5.60 ± 3.73a (1.23–17.09)	8.27 ± 11.65a (0.93–56.15)	0.744	0.001*
IL-7	0.76 ± 1.69 (0–8.52)	1.24 ± 1.30 (0.03–6.55)	0.94 ± 0.98 (0.01–4.53)	0.983	0.459
IL-10	0.01 ± 0.03 (0–0.15)	0.81 ± 1.86 (0–8.19)	0.69 ± 1.46 (0–7.33)	0.934	0.082
IL-12 (p70)	0.04 ± 0.06 (0–0.19)	0.10 ± 0.11 (0–0.39)	0.14 ± 0.18 (0–0.81)	0.893	0.030
IL-13	0.02 ± 0.12 (0–0.55)	0.62 ± 0.52a (0–2.32)	1.04 ± 1.40a (0–5.96)	0.690	< 0.001*
IFNγ	0.03 ± 0.13 (0–0.60)	0.26 ± 0.38 (0–1.41)	0.14 ± 0.21 (0–0.91)	0.876	0.008
GM-CSF	0.21 ± 0.21 (0–0.75)	0.34 ± 0.29 (0–1.00)	0.22 ± 0.25 (0–1.32)	0.929	0.119
TNFα	0.19 ± 0.17 (0.04–0.74)	0.51 ± 0.91 (0.04–4.44)	1.47 ± 5.04 (0.06–25.71)	0.953	0.259

¹Smaller values indicate better discrimination between groups

²To adjust for multiple comparisons, significance was defined as α ≤ 0.002

^*Indicates significant differences between groups after Bonferroni correction.

^ap < 0.01 vs. adult control