Figure 3.
Patients with asthma with cross-linked surfactant protein D (SP-D) exhibit increased bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) eosinophil numbers, SP-D, and nitrogen oxides. (A) Eosinophil cell counts after segmental challenge. The data are expressed as cell numbers × 106. Values are shown as mean ± SEM (n = 7). B = baseline; S = saline; A = allergen; L = LPS; A/L = combination of allergen with LPS. BAL eosinophils number (log converted values of the absolute number of cells, y axis) after segmental challenge with allergen and combination of allergen with LPS were correlated with (B) BAL SP-D levels (log converted values of the percent of baseline, x axis) and with (C) BAL total nitrogen oxides (percent of baseline, x axis). Mean baseline level for total nitrogen oxides was 1.41 ± 0.29 μM and 1.25 ± 0.11 μM for patients in the monomeric and cross-linked SP-D group, respectively.