Figure 3. Effects of mapracorat and dexamethasone on cytokine-sustained eosinophil survival. Control eosinophils were routinely cultured in the presence of 10% fetal bovine serum or for 48 h in 0.1% fetal bovine serum and treated with granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (70 pM; A) or interleukin-5 (30 pM; B) added concomitantly with mapracorat or dexamethasone (0.001–10 μM) or their vehicle. Apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry, evaluating the cell’s ability to bind annexin V and exclude propidium iodide as described under Methods. Results are expressed as percentages of apoptotic cells. Data are presented as mean±standard error of the mean from six experiments performed in triplicate using different eosinophil cell cultures. **Versus the respective control; p value (p)<0.01. ^##Versus 0.1% fetal bovine serum; p<0.01 ^§§Versus 0.1% fetal bovine serum+granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor or versus 0.1% fetal bovine serum + interleukin-5; p<0.01. Abbreviations: Ctrl represents controls; FBS represents fetal bovine serum; GM-CSF represents granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor; IL-5 represents interleukin-5.