Asthma IV

Bronchial Epithelial Cells were isolated processed as described (Chu et al., 2002 and Zhao et al., 2011). The objective of the study was to identify differentially expressed genes between normal control (NC), mild-moderate asmathic (notSA) and severe asthmatic (SA) patients. For demographics data, contact Dr.Sally Wenzel ([e-mail]) Bronchoscopy with endobronchial epithelial brushing was performed as previously described (Chu et al., 2002; Zhao et al., 2011). Bronchial alveolar lavage fluids was spin down on 4000 g for 10 minutes. 0.5- 1X10^6 cells were stored in Trizol for RNA extraction. RNA in Trizol solutionwas extracted using the QIACube system (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). RNA quality was determined using the Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100 (Agilent Technologies, Santa Clara, CA), and only samples with an RIN higher than 7 used for microarray experiments.