The impact of the ovulatory cycle on cytokine production: Evaluation of systemic, cervicovaginal, and salivary compartments

To understand the impact of the menstrual cycle on immunologic parameters, we measured the level of cytokines and chemokines from plasma, cervicovaginal lavage (CVL), and saliva samples of 6 premenopausal women during the follicular and luteal phases of the ovulatory cycle. We demonstrate that the level of plasma interleukin-8 (IL-8) was 4-fold higher during the follicular phase than the luteal phase (p = 0.004), whereas plasma IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, interferon-γ (IFN-γ), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), and TNF receptor II (TNFR II) were not altered during the ovulatory cycle. In the vaginal compartment, as measured from CVL samples, the levels of IL-6 and IL-1β were both 5-fold higher in the follicular than the luteal phase (p = 0.0002 and 0.03, respectively). Salivary cytokine and chemokine samples were similar when measured during the luteal and the follicular phases. Additional analysis of lymphocyte subsets for phenotypic and functional markers indicated that they were not influenced by the ovulatory cycle. Collectively, these data suggest that IL-6, IL-8, and IL-1β are differentially regulated during the ovulatory cycle.