Fig. 1

Upregulation of interferon (IFN)-γ and reciprocal expression with E-Cad in patients with neutrophilic non-eosinophilic (NE) chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). a The concentration of IFN-γ was measured by ELISA and compared (n = 6, 11, 33, 22, 27, 49 from left to right). b Co-immunofluorescence staining of IFN-γ (red) and neutrophil elastase (green) in tissues from patients with NE-NP and E-NP. Representative immunofluorescence images were acquired. c Double immunofluorescence (IF) staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC) in uncinate process (UP) mucosa from control patients without nasal disease (n = 7), UPs from patients with CRSsNP (n = 11), and UP (n = 9) and NP (n = 18) tissues from patients with CRSwNP. IFN-γ (red) and E-Cad (green) was stained for immunofluorescence and brown (for IHC). Representative images were acquired. d–f Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemical intensities of IFN-γ and E-Cad were quantified by ImageJ software in the patient groups as indicated above. g E-Cad expressions were examined in a high power field (HPF; x400) and scored from 0 to +3. Detailed information for scoring the E-Cad expression is provided in supplementary information. h Correlation of IFN-γ and E-Cad immunofluorescence intensities in each of patient groups. i Correlation of IFN-γ immunohistochemical intensity and E-Cad expression score. j Immunofluorescence intensity of IFN-γ following the proportion of EOS:NEU in indicated patients. Statistical significance (a, d–g, j) was determined by Kruskal–Wallis tests (P < 0.01), followed by Mann–Whitney U-test for pairwise comparisons. Spearman correlation test (h, i) was used. Spearman r values and the corresponding P-values were calculated. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; n.s. not significant. Data are shown as means ± s.e.m. Scale bar, 50 µm (b, c)