Figure 2.

VASP phosphorylation in epithelial cells of asthmatic and normal control subjects following allergen challenge. Ratio of 50/46 KD VASP in epithelial cells of asthmatic (squares) and nonasthmatic normal subjects (circles) from before (Day 1) and after segmental allergen challenge (Days 2, 9 and 16). Epithelial cells were cultured for 24 hr with (dashed lines) or without (solid lines) BAL cell co-culture. Segmental allergen challenge increased the phosphorylation of VASP in asthmatic and normal epithelial cells but did not reach significance (p = 0.08). BAL cell co-culture exerted a significant effect on VASP phosphorylation in asthmatic (p = 0.022) but not normal epithelial cells. Nevertheless, asthmatic epithelial cells had significantly less VASP phosphorylation (lower 50/46 KD VASP ratio) at all timepoints compared to nonasthmatic normal epithelial cells (p < 0.001 without BAL cells; p = 0.006 with BAL cells).