Results
Ninety-seven ALI cultures were attempted using primary NECs obtained from 70 adults, with an overall success rate of 72.16% (70/97). When classified into four mutually exclusive groups, there were no significant differences (p=0.067) in culture success with cells obtained from healthy (23/37), non-atopic asthmatics (14/16), atopic non-asthmatic (22/26) or atopic asthmatic (11/18) adult subjects (Table E2).
Group median (25%-75%) TEER was 293.0 (198.0 – 544.0) Ω.cm2 for cultures from healthy subjects, 316.0 (263.5 – 427.8) Ω.cm2 for non-atopic asthmatics, 265.0 (82.0 – 348.0) Ω.cm2 for atopic non-asthmatics, and 160.0 (132.0 – 207.0) Ω.cm2 for atopic asthmatics. TEER values were significantly different between groups (p=0.01), with the difference explained by the lower resistance in atopic asthmatics (p=0.02). Basal cytokine secretion was low and below the limit of detection for most cytokines in most cultures (data not shown).