Fig. 6.

Eact causes an increase in intracellular calcium concentrations ([Ca²⁺]_i). A: representative tracings of fura 2 calcium fluorescence in human primary airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells demonstrating calcium increases induced by different concentrations of Eact (1, 10, 25, and 50 µM). B: Eact demonstrated an increase in [Ca²⁺]_i starting at 10 µM (***P < 0.01, n = 10). ns, Not significant. C: representative tracings of increase of [Ca²⁺]_i with positive controls bradykinin, histamine, and acetylcholine (ACh, all 10 µM). Eact (25 µM) induced an increase in [Ca²⁺]_i, but, if pretreated with benzbromarone (Benz, 10 µM), this increase was attenuated. D: 25 µM Eact increased [Ca²⁺]_i, which was attenuated with pretreatment with benzbromarone (10 µM, 0.45 ± 0.06 vs. 0.11 ± 0.01 fura 2 ∆F, ***P < 0.001, n = 24–30). Bradykinin (brady), histamine, and acetylcholine (ACh) (positive controls) all caused an increase in [Ca²⁺]_i (*P < 0.05 and ***P < 0.001). All treatments were done in 3 different primary ASM cell lines. One-way ANOVA with post hoc Bonferroni’s test.