Fig. 1.

Expression of non-neuronal cholinergic system components in human neutrophils from healthy controls and COPD patients with stable and exacerbated disease. a Peripheral blood or b sputum neutrophils were isolated from healthy controls (n = 24) and patients with stable (n = 30) and exacerbated (n = 16) COPD. mRNA expression was measure by RT-PCR and quantified according to the 2^−ΔCt method, with expression of the housekeeping gene GAPDH serving as an internal control. Protein expression was measured by western blot and quantified based on the intensity of the target protein and the internal control β-actin. Representative images are shown. Data are presented as the mean ± SD. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance followed by post hoc Bonferroni tests: *p < 0.05 vs. healthy controls; #p < 0.05 vs. patients with stable COPD