inhibitory effects of theophylline and procaterol on eosinophil function eosinophils play a crucial role in bronchial asthma as theophylline and procaterol beta 2agonist are used for the treatment of bronchial asthma the specific functions of eosinophils in the presence of granulocytemacrophage colonystimulating factor gmcsf or platelet activating factor paf were examined using theophylline and procaterol alone and in combination eosinophil degranulation induced by paf or gmcsf was inhibited by theophylline 106 m103 m and 106 m to 103 m respectively and procaterol 107 m105 m and 107 m105 m respectively the combination of 104 m theophylline and various concentrations of procaterol provided higher inhibition than 104 m theophylline or procaterol 107 m105 m cd11b which is a triggering molecule for human eosinophil degranulation showed a significantly inhibited expression of paf stimulation with 104 m theophylline cd11b and another triggering molecule for eosinophil degranulation cd18 showed a significantly inhibited expression of paf stimulation using a combination of 104 m theophylline and various concentrations of procaterol 105 m107 m compared with the inhibition of 104 m theophylline or procaterol 105 m107 m but gmcsfstimulated eosinophils were not inhibited taken collectively theophylline andor procaterol have antiinflammatory effects