Cxcl5 rantes

To measure the biomarkers, ten millilitres of fasting venous blood were withdrawn from each participant between 8.30 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. at the research centre. The blood was sent to the laboratory within three hours after the first venepuncture. Subsequently, the whole blood samples were centrifuged at 1650 g for 25 min at room temperature to obtain the plasma. All the blood and plasma samples from both groups at the three time-points were stored at −80 °C. The nine plasma biomarkers were examined using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits, namely, IL-6, IL-1β (ThermoFisher, Waltham, MA, USA), CXCL12/SDF-1α, CXCL5/RANTES (R&D Systems Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA), BDNF (Promega Corporation, Madison, WI, USA), DHEA (CUSABIO, Houston, TX, USA), cortisol, hs-CRP (Tecan, Männedorf, Switzerland), and sgp130 (RayBiotech Inc., Norcross, GA, USA). Assays for each biomarker were run on the same day to avoid batch effect.

To obtain plasma, whole blood samples were centrifuged at 1650g for 25 minutes at room temperature. Subsequently, plasma samples from the 3 time points were bio-banked at −80 °C until study completion. Assays for each biomarker were run on the same day after study completion to avoid batch effect. We employed commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits to measure the level of 9 plasma biomarkers, namely IL-6, IL-1β (ThermoFisher, Waltham, MA), CXCL12/SDF-1α, CXCL5/RANTES (R&D Systems Inc., Minneapolis, MN), BDNF (Promega Corporation, Madison, WI), DHEA (CUSABIO, Houston, TX), cortisol, hs-CRP (Tecan, Männedorf, Switzerland), and sgp130 (RayBiotech Inc., Norcross, GA).