Figure 2.

Bronchial submucosal eosinophil count in subjects with severe asthma stratified by body mass index. (a) Photomicrograph of a bronchial biopsy from an obese subject with severe asthma showing isotype control (left) and major basic protein-stained eosinophils (right) (original magnification, ×200). (b) Subjects with asthma are classified by their body mass index (kg/m²) into lean (<24.9), overweight (≥25–29.9), and obese (≥30) and compared with healthy control subjects. The horizontal bar is the median. Open symbols denote subjects with sputum eosinophilia less than 3%; closed symbols denote subjects with sputum eosinophilia greater than or equal to 3%. P values for across and between group comparisons are as shown.