Figure 6.

Leukocyte recruitment by cigarette smoke extract (CSE)-stimulated human umbilical arterial endothelial cells (HUAEC) and CXCL16 plasma levels from whole blood of active and not active smokers patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and aged-matched controls. HUAEC were stimulated with 1% CSE for 24 h. Some cells were incubated with a CXCL16 neutralizing antibody (2 µg/ml) or an irrelevant isotype-matched monoclonal antibody (MOPC-21, 2 µg/ml). Subsequently, whole blood from patients with COPD active or not active smokers and healthy aged-matched controls incubated (A) without, or (B) with EDTA, was perfused over endothelial monolayers for 5 min at 0.5 dyn/cm² and leukocyte adhesion quantified (n = 13 aged-matched controls, n = 14 active smokers COPD patients, n = 16 ex-smokers COPD patients). Values are expressed as the mean ± SEM. **P < 0.01 relative to values in the medium group; ⁺P < 0.05 or ⁺⁺P < 0.01 relative to 1% CSE group; ^ΔP < 0.05 or ^ΔΔP < 0.01 relative to the values in the aged-matched control group. (C) CXCL16 plasmatic levels were measured by ELISA (n = 17 aged-matched controls, n = 17 active smokers COPD patients, n = 18 ex-smokers COPD patients). Values are expressed as the mean ± SEM.