Clinical and functional characteristics of the IPF patients according to the detection of fibrocytes in BAL.

<p>Data are expressed as median [range] or N (%).</p

Clinical and functional characteristics of the patients.

<p>Data are expressed as median [range] or N (%); na: not applicable. *p<0.05.</p

Bronchoalveolar lavage results.

<p>Data are expressed as median [range] or N (%). *p<0.05.</p

Evolution of the number of alveolar fibrocytes in 4 patients with IPF where bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was obtained at two or more occasions.

<p>Alveolar fibrocytes were no more detectable in the 2 patients with initial detectable alveolar fibrocytes. In the 2 patients without detectable alveolar fibrocytes at initial evaluation, fibrocytes remained undetectable in subsequent broncholveolar lavage fluid analysis.</p

Kaplan-Meier curve of time to death in IPF patients with (solid line) or without (dotted line) alveolar fibrocytes. Survival did not differ between the 2 groups.

<p>Kaplan-Meier curve of time to death in IPF patients with (solid line) or without (dotted line) alveolar fibrocytes. Survival did not differ between the 2 groups.</p

Characterization of bronchoalveolar lavage cells in culture.

<p>A) Morphology of adherent bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells at amplification when a positive culture occurred. From left to right: after 5 days (scale bar  =  25 µm), at 10 days (scale bar  =  250 µm) and at 21 days (scale bar  =  250 µm). The arrows indicate typical adherent mesenchymal cells with high (*, fibrocyte phenotype) or low ratio (#, fibroblast phenotype) of cell length to cell width. <b>B)</b> Confocal microscopy analysis of fibrocytes (spindle-shaped cells co-expressing CD45 and collagen) in BAL cell culture at day 21. From left to right: CD45, collagen 1, thiazole orange protein 3 (TO-PRO-3) and merge of the three fluorescence channels. Scale bars  =  15 µm. <b>C)</b> Representative immunocytochemical stain prepared from alveolar fibroblasts at passage 1. From left to right: Ig Isotype, α-propyl-4-hydroxylase (α-4H), collagen 1, α-smooth muscle actin (a-SMA). Scale bars  =  100 µm.</p

Number of fibrocytes in bronchoalveolar lavage in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), Scleroderma patients with interstitial lung disease (SSc) and in controls.

<p>Fibrocytes were never detected in controls and were in median 5240/ml and 9700/ml in IPF and SSc patients respectively.</p

Clinical and functional characteristics of the IPF patients with positive or negative cultures of fibroblasts.

<p>Data are expressed as median [range] or N (%).</p