The effects of age and gender on plasma levels of 63 cytokines

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.