The Role of Interleukin-18 in Serum and Follicular Fluid during In Vitro Fertilization and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

Figure 3

The effect of BMI on IL-18 levels in serum and follicular fluid (FF). The -axis shows the categorization of the patients concerning the BMI. They were divided into four groups (group 1: BMI < 20 (), group 2: BMI 20–25 (), group 3: BMI 25–30 (), and group 4: BMI > 30 ()). The -axis shows the IL-18 concentration (pg/mL) in serum and in follicular fluid. The IL-18 levels in serum increased with a rising BMI (group 1: median 124.78 (40.40) pg/mL, group 2: median 158.91 (86.66) pg/mL, group 3: median 184.54 (127.69) pg/mL, and group 4: median 196.69 (89.72) pg/mL). Based on the Kruskal-Wallis test, the correlation between IL-18 levels in serum and BMI was statistically significant (). IL-18 levels in follicular fluid also increased with a rising BMI (group 1: median 100.15 (63.33) pg/mL, group 2: median 138.23 (81.01) pg/mL, group 3: median 151.47 (115.07) pg/mL, and group 4: median 149.00 (67.68) pg/mL). However, the relationship between IL-18 levels and BMI was not significant according to the Kruskal-Wallis test ().