Systemic Inflammation and Immune Response
Five milliliters of venous blood were collected by using vacuum tubes containing EDTA K2 as anticoagulant. The whole blood analysis (white and red series) was performed using the automated system Sysmex 800i (Sysmex Europe GmbH, Germany). Immediately after whole blood analysis, the blood tubes were centrifuged at 1000g, for 7 minutes at 4°C. The serum was stored until the measurements of IL-2, IL-10, IL-17 and IFN-gamma were done by DuoSet ELISA kits (R&D Systems), using a microplate reader Spectramax I3 (Molecular Devices, CA, USA). In addition, the serum levels of desoxicortisol have been measured by chemiluminescence.