Figure 6

Effect of formoterol alone or in combination with dexamethasone on phagocytosis. MDM were derived from from normal subjects (●, n = 5), non-severe asthmatics (■, n = 6) and severe asthmatics (▲, n = 5) were pre-treated with formoterol in the absence or presence of dexamethasone for 1 h prior to exposure to H. influenzae (Panels A and C) or S. aureus (Panels B and D) for 4 h. Phagocytosis was measured by fluorimetry and data presented as mean ± SEM. Differences between the effects of dexamethasone or formoterol or dexamethasone and formoterol treatment were analysed using Wilcoxon paired t-test, where *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01 compared to untreated cells. D = dexamethasone, F = formoterol.