Figure 7

Association of GAD67 gene expression and MUC5AC expression. A, B. Correlation between GAD67 and MUC5AC gene expression in the large and small airway epithelium (Pearson's correlation). A. Average normalized gene expression levels of GAD67 vs MUC5AC gene expression in the large airway epithelium. B. Average normalized gene expression levels of GAD67 vs MUC5AC gene expression in the small airway epithelium. C-F. Representative MUC5AC staining on large and small airway epithelial cells from healthy smokers with high GAD67 and high MUC5AC gene expression or with low GAD67 and low MUC5AC gene expression at mRNA level. "High" or "low" gene expression is defined in Methods and based on microarray data. C. MUC5AC staining on large airway brushed cells of healthy smokers with high GAD67 and high MUC5AC gene expression (marked as red solid circles in panel A). D. MUC5AC staining on small airway brushed cells of healthy smokers with high GAD67 and high MUC5AC gene expression (marked as red solid circles in panel B). E. MUC5AC staining on large airway brushed cells of healthy smokers with low GAD67 and low MUC5AC gene expression (marked as blue solid circles in panel A). F. MUC5AC staining on small airway brushed cells of healthy smokers with low GAD67 and low MUC5AC gene expression (marked as blue solid circles in panel B). In all panels, IgG controls showed no MUC5AC staining (not shown). Bar = 10 μm.