Table 2.

Serum levels of IL-6 family cytokines at four different time points during stem cell mobilization and harvesting; the levels in graft supernatants are also included as a comparison. The results for 20 healthy stem cell donors (median age 51 years, range 25–73 years) are summarized, and all the results are presented as the median level and the variation range. All concentrations are given as pg/mL, and statistically significant alterations compared with the pretherapy levels (before G-CSF therapy) are marked in bold (Mann–Whitney U test). Graft levels were only available for 19 patients, and statistically significant differences between graft levels and postapheresis levels are indicated in the table (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01).

Mediator	Before G-CSF	During G-CSF (Pre-apheresis)	Graft Supernatant	2 h after Apheresis	24 h after Apheresis
IL-6	2.1	3.9	5.2	4.4	2.1
	(1.2–4.4)	(1.2–9.7)	(2.2–9.9)	(1.2–12.7)	(1.2–14.2)
sgp130	19,197	17,239	22,985	17,429	18,914
	(86–26,942)	(7004–28,049)	(7666–36,063)	(9723–40,714)	(10,596–32,561)
sIL-6R	4400	3952	6101	4401 *	4692
	(26–6189)	(1932–7938)	(2103–11,681)	(2181–11,843)	(2252–12,936)
IL-31	6.7	6.4	37.8	5.3 **	6.7 **
	(3.6–21.8)	(3.6–19.5)	(5.8–76.8)	(3.6–15.3)	(3.6–9.8)
OSM	29	31	94	32 **	36 **
	(7–214)	(8–229)	(11–538)	(8–137)	(10–214)
CNTF	624	571	677	649	571 *
	(470–1543)	(470–2019)	(494–2507)	(470–1892)	(470–1710)