Fig. 3

Effects of combined aclidinium bromide and fluticasone propionate on inflammatory cytokines in neutrophils from COPD patients. a Peripheral blood or b sputum neutrophils from healthy controls and COPD patients were incubated with aclidinium bromide (Acl), fluticasone propionate (Flut) or both for 1 h before they were stimulated with a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or b cigarette smoke extract (CSE) for 6 h. Cytokine release was measured in cell supernatants. The results are expressed as the mean ± SD (n = 4 each for cells from healthy controls and COPD patients in independent experiments with triplicate samples). A two-way ANOVA was followed by a post hoc Bonferroni test. *p < 0.05 vs. control unstimulated cells; #p < 0.05 vs. stimulated cells. ⊥ p < 0.05 vs. monotherapy