Bacterial induction of alveolar macrophage TLR2 and TLR4 expression.
| COPD groups | Bacterial strains | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| NTHI 11P6H1 | Moraxella catarrhalis6P29B1 | Streptococcus pneumoniae25P55S1 | |
| TLR2 (mean fluorescent index) | |||
| Non-exacerbation-prone | 17.4 (8.6) | 17.2 (4.2) | 19.8 (5.3) |
| Exacerbation-prone | 19.1 (9.3) | 14.1 (6.3) | 16.1 (4.7) |
| Mann–Whitney U p value | 0.89 | 0.04 | 0.04 |
| TLR4 (mean fluorescent index) | |||
| Non-exacerbation-prone | 16.3 (5.4) | 18.3 (6.9) | 17.0 (5.5) |
| Exacerbation-prone | 18.7 (14.4) | 17.8 (8.5) | 14.3 (4.4) |
| Mann–Whitney U p value | 0.62 | 0.53 | 0.18 |
Bold fonts denote statistically significant p values.
Alveolar macrophages of each donor were incubated with each bacteria and images of induced macrophage TLR expression were captured from several fields. Mean fluorescent intensities (MFIs) for TLR2 and TLR4 were measured and corrected for background expression. Each value is expressed as MFI (IQR). Non-parametric statistical comparison between groups of participants was performed. Immunostained images of one participant of each group are shown in figure 5.
NTHI, non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae; TLR, Toll-like receptor.