The Role of Interleukin-23 in the Early Development of Emphysema in HIV1⁺ Smokers

Figure 6

The role of T cells in AM/lymphocyte cocultures in IL-23 induced MMP-9 upregulation. (a) AM/lymphocyte cocultures treated with lymphocyte mitogen PHA (20 μg/mL) respond to IL-23 (10 ng/mL) in a stronger fashion compared to AM/lymphocyte cocultures stimulated with IL-23 only (, mean ± SEM, , Kruskall-Wallis). (b) Purified T cells from lavage (isolated via rosetting with neuraminidase treated sheep RBCs) added to AM/lymphocyte cocultures contribute to stronger upregulation of MMP-9 upon IL-23 cytokine stimulation (, mean ± SEM, , ANOVA). (c) AM expression of MMP-9 in comparison to its expression in T cells from BAL. T cells were purified from lavage using CD2 magnetic beads and relative expression of MMP-9 was compared by TaqMan PCR (, mean ± SEM, , Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test). (d) The effect of T cells on potentiation of MMP-9 upregulation after IL-23 stimulation (10 ng/mL) of AM/lymphocyte cocultures falls as the number of T cells increases (T cells percentage in AM cultures: 5%, 10%, and 40%; representative results of the effects seen in 4 experiments).

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