Associations among Inflammatory Biomarkers in the Circulating, Plasmatic, Salivary and Intraluminal Anatomical Compartments in Apparently Healthy Preschool Children from the Western Highlands of Guatemala Soto-Méndez, María José Romero-Abal, María Eugenia Aguilera García, María Eugenia Cruz Rico, María Solomons, Noel W. Schümann, Klaus Gil Hernández, Ángel Cytokines Blood plasma Biomarkers Saliva Inflammation Children White blook cells Cell enumeration techniques Background: Undernutrition and inflammation are related in many ways; for instance, non-hygienic environments are associated with both poor growth and immunostimulation in children. Objective: To describe any existing interaction among different inflammation biomarkers measured in the distinct anatomical compartments of whole blood, feces, plasma and saliva. Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, samples of whole blood, feces, plasma and saliva were collected on the 8th and last week of observation among 87 attendees (42 girls and 45 boys) of 3 daycare centers offering a common 40-day rotating menu in Guatemala’s Western Highlands. Analyses included white blood cell count (WBC), fecal calprotectin, and plasmatic and salivary cytokines including IL-1B, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and TNF-α. Associations were assessed using Spearman rank-order and goodness-of-fit correlations, as indicated, followed by backwards-elimination multiple regression analyses to determine predictor variables for IL-10 in both anatomical compartments. Results: Of a total of 66 cross-tabulations in the Spearman hemi-matrix, 22 (33%) were significantly associated. All 10 paired associations among the salivary cytokines had a significant r value, whereas 7 of 10 possible associations among plasma cytokines were significant. Associations across anatomical compartments, however, were rarely significant. IL-10 in both biological fluids were higher than corresponding reference values. When a multiple regression model was run in order to determine independent predictors for IL-10 in each anatomical compartment separately, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α emerged as predictors in plasma (r2 = 0.514) and IL-1B, IL-8 and TNF-α remained as independent predictors in saliva (r2 = 0.762). Significant cross-interactions were seen with WBC, but not with fecal calprotectin. Conclusion: Interactions ranged from robust within the same anatomical compartment to limited to nil across distinct anatomical compartments. The prominence of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, in both plasma and saliva is consistent with its counter-regulatory role facing a broad front of elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines in the same compartment. 2015-09-04T09:30:12Z 2015-09-04T09:30:12Z 2015 journal article Soto-Méndez, M.J.; et al. Associations among Inflammatory Biomarkers in the Circulating, Plasmatic, Salivary and Intraluminal Anatomical Compartments in Apparently Healthy Preschool Children from the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Plos One, 10(6): e0129158 (2015). [] 1932-6203 http://hdl.handle.net/10481/37252 10.1371/journal.pone.0129158 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License Public Library of Science (PLOS)