TABLE 1.
Demographic characteristics of the different groups, including circulating sex steroid hormone levels, lipid profiles, and levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines
| Reproductive age, not taking exogenous hormones (RA) | Postmenopausal, taking HT (HT+) | Postmenopausal, not taking HT (HT−) | P value (HT+ vs HT−) | |
| N per group | 10 | 13 | 12 | |
| Age (y) ± SD | 32 ± 4 | 61 ± 8 | 61 ± 7 | 0.61 |
| BMI (kg/m2) ± SD | 25.59 ± 9.59 | 24.11 ± 3.35 | 26.36 ± 4.64 | 0.25 |
| Fasting glucose mg/dL | 89.07 ± 9.89 | 94.75 ± 9.31 | 108.85 ± 16.88a,b | 0.03b |
| Cholesterol mg/dL | 166.16 ± 31.61 | 189.88 ± 33.43 | 174 ± 44.3 | 0.65 |
| HDL mg/dL | 62.91 ± 16.78 | 64.91 ± 16.69 | 55.14 ± 13.79 | 0.16 |
| LDL mg/dL | 87.32 ± 27.29 | 99.98 ± 19.42 | 98.4 ± 41.69 | 0.89 |
| Triglycerides mg/dL | 73.84 ± 24.16 | 113.95 ± 86.96 | 152.45 ± 82.57 | 0.08 |
| Total protein g/dL | 7.23 ± 0.85 | 6.95 ± 0.62 | 6.59 ± 0.42 | 0.23 |
| GM-CSF pg/mL | 7.93 ± 8.15 | 7.37 ± 7.26 | 5.54 ± 2.1 | 0.83 |
| IFNγ pg/mL | 6.37 ± 9.26 | 12.26 ± 22.34 | 19.21 ± 42.86 | 0.97 |
| IL10 pg/mL | 10.33 ± 6.51 | 7.56 ± 4.72 | 10 ± 7.49 | 0.57 |
| IL12p70 pg/mL | 4.31 ± 1.14 | 6.35 ± 6.78 | 3.9 ± 0.68 | 0.57 |
| IL13 pg/mL | 62.46 ± 158.78 | 17.04 ± 37.13 | 5.93 ± 5.04 | 0.62 |
| IL1β pg/mL | 2.69 ± 0.95 | 2.56 ± 0.69 | 2.27 ± 0.32 | 0.31 |
| IL2 pg/mL | 1.41 ± 0.77 | 1.79 ± 2.46 | 1.08 ± 0.68 | 0.57 |
| IL4 pg/mL | 132.56 ± 350.61 | 20.55 ± 54.21 | 4.48 ± 6.11 | 0.66 |
| IL5 pg/mL | 8.44 ± 15.75 | 4.6 ± 4.08 | 3.61 ± 2.62 | 0.50 |
| IL6 pg/mL | 37.25 ± 96.4 | 12.06 ± 29.68 | 1.98 ± 5.18 | 0.45 |
| IL8 pg/mL | 18.29 ± 32.48 | 10.82 ± 7.52 | 12.86 ± 14.58 | 0.94 |
| TNFα pg/mL | 12.53 ± 5.98 | 13.61 ± 2.89 | 15.79 ± 5.85 | 0.55 |
| Reasons for endoscopy | Abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), workup of celiac disease, Crohn disease, anemia, GI bleed, etc. | |||
Measurements are presented as mean ± SD.
BMI, body mass index; GM-CSF, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; IFNγ, interferon gamma; IL, interleukin; LDL, low-density lipoprotein; TNFα, tumor necrosis factor alpha.
Denotes a significant difference between the HT− group and the RA group.
When participants with diabetes/taking diabetes medications were removed from the analysis, the differences between the HT− and RA groups remained significant, but the differences between the HT− and HT+ groups did not remain significant. There were no significant differences between the HT+ group and the RA group for any of the parameters tested.