title: The effects of age and gender on plasma levels of 63 cytokines.
abstract: Cytokines play important roles as regulators of cell functions, and over the last decades a number of cytokine assays have been developed. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of age and gender on a large number of cytokines. Plasma samples were collected from 33 healthy blood donors. The samples were analyzed using a multiplex proximity extension assay (PEA) allowing simultaneous measurement of 92 cytokines and four technical controls. Biomarkers with less than 80% quantitative results were excluded leaving 63 cytokines that were analyzed for the effects of gender and age. The plasma level of three of the investigated biomarkers (DNER, MCP-4 and MMP-10) were found to be significantly different for the two genders (adjusted p-value<0.05), and 15 of the biomarkers (CCL11, CCL25, CDCP1, CSF-1, CXCL11, CXCL9, FGF-23, Flt3L, HGF, IL-10RB, MCP-3, MCP-4, MMP-10, OPG, VEGF-A) were significantly associated with age. This study reveals the effects of age and gender on a large number of cytokine assays. CXCL5 and TNFB were significantly higher in females, while the other markers with significant gender-dependent differences were higher in males. For the markers that were significantly associated with age, only CXCL6 was found to decrease with age, while the other biomarkers increased with age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: anders.larsson@akademiska.se.
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carlsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Sciences, Anesthesiology and Intensive Care and Uppsala Berzelii Technology Center for Neurodiagnostics, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gordh
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Sciences, Anesthesiology and Intensive Care and Uppsala Berzelii Technology Center for Neurodiagnostics, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anne-Li
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Lind
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Måns
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thulin
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, 751 08 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Masood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kamali-Moghaddam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D000089703:Fibroblast Growth Factor-23; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010949:Plasma / Q000276:immunology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D016207:Cytokines; C000717427:FGF23 protein, human; D000089703:Fibroblast Growth Factor-23
keywords: Age; Cytokine; Gender; Human; Plasma; Proximity extension assay (PEA)