Fig. 1

Macrophages relay inflammatory signals to epithelial cells through a soluble factor. Intracellular MUC5B staining of human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC), grown in ALI culture. A Five different conditions were investigated in HBECs: Untreated ALI, media with 100 ng/ml LPS, conditioned media from LPS activated AM from three different donors, conditioned media from same AM donors without LPS or by addition of 50% Xvivo-10 macrophage media alone (Vehicle control). Data are presented as mean ± standard deviation from three independent experiments using conditioned media from three different AM donors and triplicate technical replicates. B Schematic drawing depicting basolateral transfer of conditioned macrophage media to ALI cultures in transwell plates. C Representative confocal scans of MUC5B in whole-mount ALI cultures stimulated with LPS only or conditioned media from LPS activated macrophages (Green = Phalloidin, Red = MUC5B)