TABLE 2.

Effects of sex on serum concentrations of inflammation biomarkers and cytokines in a subset of healthy young adults from the TSS¹

Variable	Total (n = 737)	Women (n = 462)	Men (n = 275)
Inflammation biomarkers2
Kynurenine-to-tryptophan ratio, nmol/L:μmol/L	19.6 (14.0, 27.2)	19.3 (13.9, 26.3)	20.2 (14.4, 28.9)
Neopterin, nmol/L	3.79 (2.10, 7.97)	3.94 (2.10, 7.92)	4.03 (2.03, 8.18)
C-reactive protein, mg/L	0.51 (0.0, 4.66)	0.55 (0.0, 5.16)	0.44 (0.0, 3.21)
Cytokines,2 ng/L
IFNγ	0.56 (0.25, 2.06)	0.54 (0.25, 2.02)	0.60 (0.25, 2.07)
IL-2	1.33 (0.89, 3.33)	1.37 (0.88, 3.68)	1.23 (0.0, 2.70)***
IL-4	2.00 (1.33, 4.14)	2.05 (1.37, 4.42)	1.95 (1.32, 3.56)*
IL-6	0.79 (0.38, 2.25)	0.82 (0.39, 2.24)	0.74 (0.36, 2.28)**
IL-8	8.06 (3.92, 20.2)	8.48 (4.08, 22.2)	7.47 (3.64, 18.2)**
IL-10	0.68 (0.38, 1.88)	0.70 (0.40, 1.86)	0.64 (0.36, 2.00)*
IL-1α	0.17 (0.09, 0.85)	0.18 (0.09, 0.91)	0.15 (0.09, 0.58)***
IL-1β	1.39 (0.0, 4.40)	1.51 (0.13, 4.86)	1.29 (0.0, 3.48)***
MCP-1	193 (93.4, 348)	189 (91.8, 332)	197 (100, 368)
TNFα	4.60 (2.46, 13.04)	4.44 (2.27, 11.8)	4.87 (2.73, 14.9)*

¹Values are medians (5th, 95th percentiles). The TSS included 2508 participants. Subjects included in the current study were from a random subset of 800 TSS participants on whom cytokine analysis was performed. Subjects with C-reactive protein >10 mg/L or neopterin >10 nmol/L or with multiple (>2) cytokines >7 times the IQR were excluded as having possible subclinical inflammation, leaving a final set of 737 subjects for data analysis. Some cytokines had measured concentrations under the lower limit of detection and were assigned a value of 0.0 for statistical analysis. These included C-reactive protein (n = 52), IL-1α (n = 9), IL-1β (n = 45), IL-2 (n = 27), IL-4 (n = 2), IL-10 (n = 1), IFNγ (n = 11), and TNFα (n = 1). *,**,*** Different from women: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. MCP-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1; TSS, Trinity Student Study.

²Mann-Whitney U tests were used to test differences between variables.