Asymptomatic vs. Symptomatic

• elevated concentrations of 18 pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were observed in the symptomatic group as compared to the asymptomatic group
• tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) (P = 3.39 × 10−14), macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) (P = 5.08 × 10−13), growth-regulated oncogene-α (GRO-α) (P = 1.5 × 10−10), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) (P = 2.05 × 10−9) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) (P = 6.33 × 10−9) showed the most significant changes

Asymptomatic vs. 37 Healthy Controls

• plasma levels of 32 cytokines were similar between the healthy controls and the asymptomatic individuals
• significantly higher levels of stem cell factor (SCF) (P = 1.48 × 10−9), IL-13 (P = 3.75 × 10−7), IL-12 p40 (P = 7.08 × 10−6) and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) (P = 1.33 × 10−3) were found in the asymptomatic group

• Collectively, our data show that the asymptomatic individuals had a reduced inflammatory response characterized by low circulating concentrations of cytokines and chemokines.