When using a t-test to compare

stage I and stage IV sarcoidosis, the difference was also significant (P < 0·05). There was no difference in mean BAL MRP14 level between patients who were treated with oral steroids and those who were not. Higher BALF MRP14 levels were associated with a lower percentage of predicted DLCO (R = −0·49, P < 0·001), a lower percentage of predicted FVC (R = −0·44, P < 0·005) and a lower percentage of predicted FEV1 (R = −0·39, P < 0·01) in sarcoidosis patients (Fig. 2). However, lung function parameters were not correlated with BALF MRP14 levels in IPF patients. Interestingly, there was an association between BALF MRP14 levels and the percentage of neutrophils in BALF of IPF patients (R = 0·33, P < 0·05, Fig. 3), but this association was not found in sarcoidosis

patients. BALF neutrophil Selleck Ceritinib percentage did show a weak correlation with sarcoidosis chest radiographic stage (R = 0·21, P < 0·05). We found no correlation between BALF MRP14 and macrophages or any other BALF cell types. Analysis of follow-up data from IPF patients did not reveal an association between BALF MRP14 levels and survival time. Smoking habits or gender did not affect BALF MRP14 levels in any patient group or controls. In addition, no correlation was found between BALF MRP14 and CRP levels in blood. The aim of the present study was to quantify HM781-36B in vivo BALF MRP14 levels in sarcoidosis and IPF, and investigate whether they are associated with clinical parameters and disease severity. We found that the mean level of BALF MRP14 was elevated significantly in both diseases compared to controls,

with mean levels significantly higher in IPF patients than in sarcoidosis patients. In sarcoidosis, the highest BALF MRP14 levels were found in the fibrotic stage IV sarcoidosis patients with a linear association of increasing levels across the radiographic stages. High BALF MRP14 levels were also associated with poor diffusion capacity and restrictive lung function measures. not Therefore, our results demonstrate that BALF MRP14 levels are associated with pulmonary disease severity in sarcoidosis. We found no association between MRP14 levels and lung function in IPF. However, the observation that BALF MRP14 levels in IPF are higher than in sarcoidosis suggests that they reflect the difference in severity between these diseases. This is the first study to report BALF MRP14 levels measured by ELISA. Previously, Bargagli et al. showed that BALF MRP14 levels in IPF were higher than in controls, using 2D-gelelectrophoresis [16]. They found no association with sarcoidosis stage or lung function parameters, but this is due most probably to the relatively small number of patients included. Our larger group of patients enabled us to investigate the relationship between clinical parameters and MRP14.