Table 2.

Cytokine mRNA in BMNC and muscle as determined by comparative PCR

		Pre	Post	2 h post	Increase
IL-6	Muscle tissue	0	4	2	5
	BMNC	0	0	0	0
IL-1ra	Muscle tissue	0	1	2	2
	BMNC	5	4	5	5
IL-1β	Muscle tissue	0	0	1	1
	BMNC	2	3	3	4
TNF-α	Muscle tissue	0	0	0	0
	BMNC	1	0	0	0

The first three columns show the number of detectable PCR product bands in an agarose gel at rest (Pre), immediately after (Post), and 2 h after (2 h post) the marathon race. ‘Increase’ denotes the number of samples with an increase in the ratio R (level of cytokine/level of GAPDH) of the sample at Post or 2 h post compared with the R from the pre-exercise sample.