Morphometry of selected airway mucous gland subcomponents in fatal asthma (FA) and non-fatal asthma (NFA) cases and non-asthma control (NAC) subjects
| Mucous gland subcomponents† | NAC (n = 12) | NFA (n = 12) | FA (n = 12) | p Value |
| Actin: myoepithelial | 14.2 (2.3)* | 22.1 (2.7) | 32.7 (6.9) | 0.017‡ |
| Actin: non-myoepithelial§ | 2.8 (0.5) | 3.3 (0.4) | 3.3 (0.4) | 0.736‡ |
| Acinar cell cytoplasm | 41.0 (5.4) | 63.8 (11.1) | 71.9 (15.4) | 0.151‡ |
| Acinar cell nuclei | 4.5 (0.6) | 8.7 (1.5) | 9.0 (2.3) | 0.147‡ |
| Acinar lumen | 0.6 (0.1) | 0.9 (0.3) | 2.0 (0.8) | 0.118‡ |
| Interstitium¶ | 66.1 (9.1) | 97.5 (14.2) | 109.8 (20.2) | 0.120‡ |
*Values expressed as mean (SEM).
†Expressed as area/basement membrane perimeter (A/Pbm).
‡p Value for FA group compared with NAC group using ANOVA.
§Includes arteries, arterioles, veins and lymphatics.
¶Includes connective tissue, nerves and inflammatory cells.