Macrophages represent the most predominant immune effector cells in the alveolar spaces and conducting
airways and are known to express activated phenotype. The study was aimed at assessing the differences in cellular profile and the expression of selected surface markers on sputum macrophages in asthma and healthy subjects.
17 healthy subjects (never smoked) and 10 mild asthma subjects treated with glucocorticosteroids were enrolled into the study. For macrophage phenotyping a immunocytochemistry method was used with commercially available
antibodies anti: CD14, CD71, CD11b and CD54. The nonparametric Mann Whitney U test was applied for data comparison, p valu