An in vitro Co-culture Model to Characterize Cross-talk between COPD Airway Epithelia and Dendritic Cells

comparison; * = p < 0.05, ** = p<0.01, *** = p<0.001, **** = p<0.0001). A. moDC induction of T cell proliferation was enhanced by conditioning with COPD airway. moDC co-cultured with both mock and HRV-infected COPD airway significantly increased T cell proliferation compared to healthy airway co-culture and mono-culture. B. moDC induction of T cell cytokines was enhanced by airway co-culture, with HRV-infected COPD airway showing the strongest effect. moDC cocultured with HRV-infected COPD airway significantly increased IFN-g, IL-6, IL-2, and TNF secretion relative to mono-culture. Disease effects were observed with HRV-infected COPD airway co-culture significantly increasing IL-6 compared to HRV-infected healthy airway. HRV-infected COPD airway co-culture also showed a strong trend towards increased IFN-g and IL-2 compared to HRV-infected healthy airway. TNF was significantly increased by co-cultured moDCs relative to mono-cultured, with a greater effect of COPD airway (1.84-2 fold increase induced by COPD co-culture vs 1.47-1.66 fold increase induced by Healthy). A