Four blood samples of 6mL were collected at baseline, and 30, 60, and 90 minutes after TSST onset into EDTA lavender-top tubes. Samples were placed on ice immediately after collection, after which they were centrifuged, aliquoted into plasma samples, and stored at −80°C. After data collection was completed, samples were assayed in duplicate for interleukin (IL)-6 using the Quantikine high sensitivity human IL-6 ELISA kits (R&D Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, MN) by the UCLA Cousins Center Inflammatory Biology Core. Intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variability were below 7%. Outlier screening revealed a total of 11 samples across time points that had IL-6 values greater than 3 SDs from their respective means. These values were Winsorized and replaced with the value at three SDs. All values were natural log-transformed given the skewed distribution. As reported previously (Chiang et al., 2017 (link)), the TSST was effective in eliciting an inflammatory response, with participants exhibiting a 34% average increase in IL-6 from baseline to 90 minutes after TSST onset.