Association of Elevated Serum GM-CSF, IFN-γ, IL-4, and TNF-α Concentration with Tobacco Smoke Induced Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in a South Indian Population

Table 2

Serum concentrations [median (25th–75th percentile) pg/ml] of the eight cytokines measured in tobacco smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (TS-COPD) and TS CONTROL subjects. p<0.05 is considered as significant.

Cytokines	TS-COPD (n=30)	TS-CONTROL (n=20)	p value
	(pg/ml)	(pg/ml)
GM-CSF	69.64 (46.67 - 97.48)	36.78 (30.07 - 53.88)	0.014
IFN-	51.06 (17 - 84.86)	11.7 (3.18 - 32.81)	0.017
IL-2	2.29 (2.29 - 2.73)	2.29 (2.29 – 2.29)	0.08
IL-4	9.09 (1.8 - 19.9)	1.8 (1.8 - 4.46)	0.024
IL-6	14.42 (7.76 - 21.18)	13.04 (11.65-21.34)	0.68
IL-8	14.22 (8.96 - 21.23)	22.7 (9.75 – 35.18)	0.40
IL-10	3.4 (3.4 - 6.65)	3.6 (2.19 - 6.4)	0.70
TNF-	20.68 (5.5 – 29.26)	3.5 (3.5 - 4.5)	<0.001

GM-CSF: granular macrophage colony stimulating factor; IFN-: interferon gamma; IL: interleukin; TNF-: tumor necrosis factor alpha.