Figure 2

Phagocytosis of beads, H. influenzae or S. aureus by alveolar macrophages. Alveolar macrophages from normal subjects (●, n = 7) and patients with non-severe asthma (NSA; ■, n = 6) or severe asthma (SA; ▲, n = 8) were obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage. Alveolar macrophages were exposed to fluorescently-labeled beads (Panel A) or H. influenzae or S. aureus (Panels B and C) for 4 h and phagocytosis reported as relative fluorescence units (RFU). Data are presented as dot-plots and medians. A Kruskal-Wallis test by Dunnett's post-hoc test was used for multi-group comparisons where *p < 0.05. Direct comparison between normal subjects and SA for S.aureus (C) was performed using a Mann-Whitney t-test where ^$p < 0.01.