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.