Figure 6.

Quantification of lymphocytes in small airways of patients with COPD. (A–C) Representative images of CD4 (A) and CD8 (B) T lymphocyte infiltration in airway wall and lymphoid follicle adjacent to small airway (C). Box and whisker plots show lymphocyte counts in airway walls with normalisation to 1 mm RBM, and the proportion of small airways with adjacent lymphoid follicles from all patient groups. Boxes represent the IQR, whiskers extend to the most extreme data point which is no more than 1.5 times the IQR from the box and circles beyond the whiskers are extreme values, the line within the box represents the median. Groups were compared pairwise using Mann-Whitney U test. Estimated p values were Bonferroni-adjusted. The threshold for significance was 0.05. *Significantly different compared with NS controls. FS, former smoker; NS, non-smoker; RBM, reticular basement membrane.