(b).

Variables in model (variance extracted = 62.3%)	Principal components extracted
	1∗	2	3
	(AA steroids)	(Receptors)	(Cortisol)
Age at entry	−0.596	−0.266	0.128
dhea_silW_new	0.809	−0.250	0.188
adione_slW_new	0.851	−0.137	0.020
test_silW_new	0.623	0.025	−0.380
il_2_alplW_new	−0.108	0.816	−0.043
stnf_r1lW_new	0.082	0.822	0.279
il_1_betlW_new	0.688	0.209	−0.065
il_1ralW_new	0.006	0.205	0.905
cort_silW_new	0.504	−0.150	0.213

Rotation method: Oblimin with Kaiser normalization, in 6 iterations.

^∗IL-1β and cortisol are first extracted with the AA steroids.