Figure 4

In vitro test of patients responsiveness to treatment in nasal cells freshly collected at week 0 from patients enrolled in the clinical study. (a) Analysis of CFTR function and (b) residual CFTR protein at PM in nasal epithelial cells from 45/52 CF subjects enrolled in the clinical study at baseline and cultured for 18 h with or without cysteamine (250 μM) or with cysteamine plus EGCG (80 μM) and then kept for 48 h in medium or medium added with EGCG. Individual values of patients in different cohorts. (a) Rate of halide efflux, in CF subject of different cohorts expressed as percent of values of five non-CF healthy controls (considered as 100% of value). The analysis was performed on at least 50 cells per sample and per experiment. (b) Individual values of residual CFTR protein at the PM of CF patients in different cohorts. The values are expressed as percent of five non-CF healthy control. Mean values of independent experiments. Black line represents the mean value. Cys, cysteamine; EGCG, epigallocatechin gallate; Wo, washout. Cys+EGCG, treatment with cysteamine and EGCG; Cys+EGCG+Wo, treatment with cysteamine and EGCG followed by 48 h of culture with medium alone (washout of both cysteamine and EGCG); Cys+Wo+EGCG, treatment with cysteamine and EGCG followed by 48 h of cysteamine washout in the presence of EGCG