Table 2.
Spearman’s correlation coefficients (significance in brackets) showing linearity between the cytokine concentrations measured in baseline seminal plasma (SP) samples and those measured in experimental SP samples for each experiment. Cytokines: Granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interferon-gamma (IFNγ), interleukin (IL)-1α, IL-1β, IL-1ra, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-18 and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα). Experiment 1: SP samples harvested immediately (0 h), 2 h and 24 h after ejaculation; Experiment 2: Fresh and stored SP samples for 72 h at 5 °C, −20 °C and −80 °C; Experiment 3: Fresh and stored SP samples for two months at −20 °C and −80 °C.
| Cytokine | Spearman Correlation (p-Value) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Experiment 1 | Experiment 2 | Experiment 3 | |||||
| 2 h vs. 0 h | 24 h vs. 0 h | 5 °C vs. Fresh | −20 °C vs. Fresh | −80 °C vs. Fresh | −20 °C vs. Fresh | −80 °C vs. Fresh | |
| GM-CSF | 0.83 (<0.001) | 0.70 (0.001) | 0.89 (<0.001) | 0.74 (<0.001) | 0.81 (<0.001) | 0.48 (0.032) | 0.56 (0.010) |
| IFNγ | 0.62 (0.004) | 0.74 (0.002) | 0.79 (<0.001) | 0.56 (ns) | 0.72 (0.006) | 0.32 (ns) | 0.62 (0.003) |
| IL-1α | 0.98 (<0.001) | 0.99 (<0.00) | 0.90 (<0.001) | 0.90 (<0.001) | 0.88 (<0.001) | 0.81 (<0.001) | 0.85 (<0.001) |
| IL-1β | 0.86 (<0.001) | 0.81 (<0.00) | 0.92 (<0.001) | 0.93 (<0.001) | 0.95 (<0.001) | 0.93 (<0.001) | 0.85 (<0.001) |
| IL-1ra | 0.97 (<0.001) | 0.99 (<0.00) | 0.96 (<0.001) | 0.96 (<0.001) | 0.97 (<0.001) | 0.94 (<0.001) | 0.96 (<0.001) |
| IL-2 | 0.88 (<0.001) | 0.89 (<0.00) | 0.70 (<0.001) | 0.71 (0.006) | 0.70 (0.003) | 0.57 (0.008) | 0.83 (<0.001) |
| IL-4 | 0.79 (<0.001) | 0.76 (<0.00) | 0.81 (<0.001) | 0.73 (0.011) | 0.70 (<0.011) | 0.60 (0.005) | 0.72 (<0.001) |
| IL-6 | 0.95 (<0.001) | 0.91 (<0.00) | 0.96 (<0.001) | 0.97 (<0.001) | 0.96 (<0.001) | 0.98 (<0.001) | 0.97 (<0.001) |
| IL-8 | 0.68 (<0.001) | 0.75 (<0.00) | 0.83 (<0.001) | 0.91 (<0.001) | 0.94 (<0.001) | 0.77 (<0.001) | 0.86 (<0.001) |
| IL-10 | 0.82 (<0.001) | 0.84 (<0.00) | 0.66 (0.003) | 0.84 (0.010) | 0.71 (<0.010) | 0.53 (0.016) | 0.65 (0.002) |
| IL-12 | 0.70 (<0.001) | 0.90 (<0.00) | 0.86 (<0.001) | 0.84 (<0.001) | 0.83 (<0.001) | 0.34 (ns) | 0.84 (<0.001) |
| IL-18 | 0.95 (<0.001) | 0.93 (<0.00) | 0.82 (<0.001) | 0.78 (<0.001) | 0.80 (<0.001) | 0.63 (0.003) | 0.86 (<0.001) |
| TNFα | 0.92 (<0.001) | 0.93 (<0.00) | 0.83 (<0.001) | 0.71 (0.009) | 0.72 (<0.001) | 0.40 (ns) | 0.60 (0.005) |