Figure 1

Air Liquid Interface (ALI) bronchial epithelium. (A) Schematic of the ALI chamber: the basal side of the differentiated epithelium is in contact with the culture medium through a porous membrane and the apical side points towards the air. The epithelium has a pseudo stratified structure made of basal cells, goblet cells which produce the mucus and ciliated cells. During the forward stroke cilia tips poke in the mucus layer while their recovery motion takes place in the periciliary layer. (B) Average active ciliated cell density quantified for control cultures (nā=ā17), mild asthma (MA, nā=ā7), severe asthma (SA, nā=ā18) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, nā=ā7). Results are expressed as median with 10 and 90 percentiles.