The Role of T Helper 17 (Th17) and Regulatory T Cells (Treg) in the Pathogenesis of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis among HIV-Infected Women

Table 1

Comparisons of the plasma mean levels (in pg/ml) of cytokines and chemokines across the study groups by HIV/VVC status.

		Study groups
		HIV− and VVC− mean ± SEM	HIV− and VVC+ mean ± SEM	HIV+ and VVC+ mean ± SEM	HIV+ and VVC− mean ± SEM	ANOVA value (unadjusted)
Cytokine types	Cytokine limit of detection (pg/mL)
Proinflammatory
IL-1β	0.6	4.01 ± 0.70	3.04 ± 0.60	5.71 ± 0.01	2.07 ± 0.21	<0.0001
MIP-1β	2.4	68.11 ± 1.17	128.86 ± 17.07	158.24 ± 0.01	182.20 ± 22.85	<0.0001
G-CSF	1.7	0.85 ± 0.00	3.43 ± 1.81	4.44 ± 0.002	2.16 ± 1.35	0.038
GM-CSF	2.2	48.12 ± 0.76	30.04 ± 9.27	1.10 ± 0.00	88.18 ± 58.75	0.018
IFN-γ	6.4	28.02 ± 9.33	96.66 ± 73.35	3.20 ± 0.00	10.60 ± 4.35	0.032
IL-2	1.6	3.07 ± 1.02	18.93 ± 13.06	0.8 ± 0.00	0.8 ± 0.00	0.003
IL-8	1	6.05 ± 1.092	7.16 ± 0.94	9.79 ± 0.001	7.07 ± 0.91	0.015
TNF-α	6	27.31 ± 7.38	24.23 ± 17.07	6.86 ± 0.001	3.28 ± 2.31	<0.0001∗∗
MCP-1	1.1	101.15 ± 2.05	100.33 ± 25.11	70.88 ± 0.001	75.92 ± 11.11	0.075
IL-6	2.6	19.24 ± 4.18	33.53 ± 20	5.64 ± 0.001	6.76 ± 0.99	0.007
IL-7	1.1	15 ± 1.96	53.07 ± 39.57	16.99 ± 0.001	16.33 ± 1.78	0.502
IL-12	3.5	10.14 ± 3.37	84.98 ± 70.64	3.38 ± 0.001	13.36 ± 5.96	0.383
IL-17	3.3	1.65 ± 0.00	3.22 ± 0.81	1.65 ± 0.00	1.65 ± 0.00	0.374
Anti-inflammatory
IL-4	0.7	0.84 ± 0.22	1.03 ± 0.26	1.03 ± 0.001	0.92 ± 0.19	0.909
IL-5	0.6	2.12 ± 0.50	7.16 ± 4.04	2.45 ± 0.001	2.79 ± 0.62	0.327
IL-13	0.7	2.43 ± 0.15	27.18 ± 22.83	2.37 ± 0.001	3.27 ± 0.51	0.38
IL-10	0.3	6.10 ± 0.32	74.66 ± 46.85	2.06 ± 0.003	7.81 ± 4.04	<0.0001
TGF-β1	1.7	13.77 ± 4.58	37.85 ± 17.47	187.59 ± 0.01	33 ± 16.83	<0.0001
TGF-β2	14.7	40.33 ± 9.62	59.44 ± 8.29	86.71 ± 0.01	69.79 ± 9.06	0.008
TGF-β3	2.8	1.4 ± 0.00	4.30 ± 1.19	1.4 ± 0.00	4.55 ± 1.64	0.013

SEM: standard error of the mean (in pg/ml). VVC+: presence of vulvovaginal candidiasis infection; VVC−: absence of vulvovaginal candidiasis infection; HIV: human immunodeficiency virus; IL = interleukin; MIP = macrophage inflammatory protein; TGF: transforming growth factor. IFN = interferon; G-CSF = granulocyte colony-stimulating factor; GM-CSF = granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. Mann–Whitney U nonparametric tests; Kruskal–Wallis nonparametric tests.