Table 2.
Protein levels of cervicovaginal cytokine/chemokines in healthy young women with immature and mature cervical epithelium
| Cytokinea | Immature epithelium (n=16) | Mature epithelium (n=16) | Box Cox regression | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median (pg/ml) | Interquartiles (pg/ml) | Median (pg/ml) | Interquartiles (pg/ml) | p-value | |||
| IL-1α | 395.89 | 89.65 | 894.96 | 51.10 | 18.88 | 94.56 | 0.005 |
| IL-1β | 54.11 | 11.7 | 261.43 | <LLD | <LLD | 1.24 | <0.001 |
| IL-6 | 50.01 | 21.07 | 94.01 | 2.97 | 1.41 | 8.77 | <0.001 |
| IL-8 | 3139.1 | 401.8 | 7557.2 | 115.5 | 58.5 | 307.3 | <0.001 |
| MIP-1α | 24.39 | 10.02 | 109.18 | <LLD | <LLD | <LLD | <0.001 |
| RANTES | 2.55 | 2.00 | 15.42 | <LLD | <LLD | <LLD | 0.006 |
| TNF | 0.67 | 0.63 | 0.73 | 0.62 | 0.60 | 0.63 | <0.001 |
| IL-10 | 0.69 | 0.50 | 1.54 | <LLD | <LLD | <LLD | <0.001 |
| IL-12 | 0.9 | 0.81 | 1.01 | <LLD | <LLD | <LLD | <0.001 |
| IFNγ | 0.30 | 0.30 | 0.66 | <LLD | <LLD | <LLD | 0.002 |
<LLD, below the lower limit of detection; IL, interkeukin; MIP, macrophage inflammatory protein; RANTES, regulated upon activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; IFN, interferon
IFNα2 levels were <LLD in all 32 women and thus are not reported.
Results were unchanged in multivariate Box Cox regression models adjusting for each covariate separately: age, years since menarche, days since last menses, years of prior sexual activity, number of lifetime sexual partners, HPV infection, hormonal contraceptive use, smoking, bacterial vaginosis diagnosed by Nugent’s criteria, polymorphonuclear cells seen on wet prep