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. 2012 Nov 16;9:102. doi: 10.1186/1743-7075-9-102

Table 2.

Mean cytokine concentrations by vitamin tertiles1

Cytokine (pg/mL)
 Tertile 1
 Tertile 2
 Tertile 3
 p†
  Model 1 Model 22,3,4 Model 35,6,7
 
 Serum ascorbic acid
  
IL-1RA
 310.67 ± 11.46
 329.51 ± 9.6
 326.03 ± 9.75
 0.0624
 0.0468
 0.0413
IFN-γ
 179.79 ± 7.33a
 204.95 ± 7.42b
 204.23 ± 7.15b
 0.0006 §
 0.0002 §
 0.0002 §
IP-10
 594.67 ± 27.52
 604.55 ± 22.24
 590.56 ± 20.54
 0.5878
 0.5341
 0.558
PDGF-bb
 1220.29 ± 132.69
 1136.53 ± 84.63
 1251.47 ± 114.75
 0.0686
 0.0788
 0.0787
RANTES
 2529.99 ± 91.78
 2490.87 ± 147.66
 2295.8 ± 83.83
 0.3554
 0.4747
 0.4962
 
 Plasma α-tocopherol
  
IL-1RA
 339.87 ± 12.67
 317.07 ± 9.97
 309.71 ± 7.54
 0.0466
 0.0248
 0.0247
IFN-γ
 211.83 ± 7.83a
 197.65 ± 8.16b
 179.97 ± 5.67b
 0.0018
 0.0004 §
 0.0003 §
IP-10
 608.78 ± 22.85
 586.16 ± 23.07
 595.28 ± 24.77
 0.1821
 0.1423
 0.143
PDGF-bb
 1390.83 ± 167.45
 1150.59 ± 85.74
 1064.07 ± 44.17
 0.7387
 0.7313
 0.7341
RANTES
 2556.83 ± 105.39a
 2524.51 ± 150.75a
 2238.31 ± 65.6b
 <0.0001 §
 <0.0001 §
 <0.0001 §
 
 Plasma 25(OH)D
  
IL-1RA
 324.23 ± 10.04
 315.19 ± 10.38
 327.19 ± 10.45
 0.5194
 0.4750
 0.5239
IFN-γ
 203.68 ± 7.97
 187.19 ± 6.2
 198.56 ± 7.69
 0.2111
 0.1626
 0.2214
IP-10
 593.58 ± 28.78
 562.99 ± 18.05
 633.61 ± 22.56
 0.4381
 0.4366
 0.4027
PDGF-bb
 1050.22 ± 81.85
 1260.6 ± 148.14
 1293.67 ± 92.93
 0.9075
 0.8993
 0.9023
RANTES 2174.88 ± 62.99 2427.65 ± 167.06 2715.98 ± 77.22 0.0561 0.0523 0.0236

1)Shown are crude, untransformed means ± standard errors.

†: p-value from ANCOVA with loge- or square-root transformed cytokine and vitamin concentrations where necessary.

Model 1: adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, waist circumference, physical activity, season, total cholesterol, and hormonal contraceptive use among women.

Model 2: 2)For ascorbic acid, adjusted for the covariates listed in Model 1 plus serum α-tocopherol; 3)For α-tocopherol, adjusted for Model 1 plus ascorbic acid; 4)For 25(OH)D, adjusted for Model 1 plus ascorbic acid.

Model 3: 5)For ascorbic acid, adjusted for Model 2 plus 25(OH)D; 6)For α-tocopherol, adjusted for Model 2 plus 25(OH)D; 7)For 25(OH)D, adjusted for Model 2 plus α-tocopherol.

§: These p-values meet the Bonferroni level of significance for 45 tests (p = 0.0011; α = 0.05; 5 cytokines x 3 vitamins x 3 models).

a,b,c: Superscript letters indicate significant differences in cytokine concentrations between tertiles (p < 0.05), after adjustment for all covariates included in Model 3. The Tukey-Kramer procedure was used to adjust for multiple comparisons between groups within each ANCOVA. These post-hoc comparisons were only performed when Model p-values met the Bonferroni level of significance.