Table 3.

Comparison of cytokine levels within the glucocorticoid (GC) group between days 0 (D0) and 7 (D7): ↑ and ↓ arrows indicate an increase or decrease in cytokine levels, respectively. IL-17α levels were analyzed using an unpaired t-test (indicated by ^) and are depicted as mean±SEM. The rest of the cytokine levels were analyzed using a 2-tailed Mann-Whitney test based on a Fisher test. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant (#). n=number of subjects.

GC Days 0 vs 7
Cytokines:	p	n: day 0, day 7
IL-17a^ ↑	0.045	5,2
INF-α ↓	0.026	6,6
IL-6 ↓	0.003	7,6
IL-10 ↓	0.035	7,6
MCP-1 ↓	0.004	7,8
G-CSF ↓	0.004	4,8
GM-CSF ↓	0.026	7,7
WBCs ↑	0.041	8,7
platelets ↑	0.034	8,7