Total RNA was extracted using TRIzol (Invitrogen) according to the manufacturer's instructions. cDNA was prepared by reverse transcription from total RNA using MultiScribe TM Reverse Transcriptase (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) with random hexamer primers (Applied Biosystems). Quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR) was performed using the Applied Biosystems 7900HT Sequence Detection System. Primers and probes specific for AR, Heparin-binding EGF-like Growth Factor (HB-EGF), IL-2, IFNc, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, IL-13, CD3d, EGF, Neuregulin (NRG) 1-4, epiregulin (EREG), betacellulin (BTC) and TGFa were all obtained from TaqMan Gene Expression Assays (Applied Biosystems). CD3d gene expression was used as an endogenous control for normalizing mRNA amounts. All samples were run in duplicate and data were analyzed using SDS software (Applied Biosystems).