Figure 5. Suppression of viral replication in PBECs from asthmatic donors by neutralization of endogenous TGF-β.

PBECs from asthmatic donors were pretreated for 24 h in the presence of a neutralizing anti pan TGF-β antibody or isotype control antibody before infection with RV1B (1000 units/10⁵ cells) for 48 h. In A, viral titre was determined as TCID₅₀/ml using culture supernatants obtained 48 h p.i. In B, IFN-β protein was measured at 48 h and was expressed as a ratio of the viral load measured as TCID₅₀ units. The data were analyzed using Wilcoxon’s rank sum test.