Effect of storage temperatures on the stability of cytokines in cervical mucous.

Cytokines have progressively come to serve as indicators for the presence or severity of a disease. But accurate measurement of cytokine levels can be deterred by lack of proper handling and storage of the samples. In this study, we attempted to measure the effect of snap-freezing and refrigeration at the time of collection on cervical mucous. Luminex analyses of the frozen and refrigerated pairs exhibited no significant differences in levels for 7 out of the 10 cytokines measured simultaneously. The cytokines TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma and IL-1beta, were significantly different between the pairs with the refrigerated samples showing higher levels for each of these cytokines. The results suggest that refrigeration of mucous samples immediately after collection would allow for better conservation of the cytokines in cervical mucous.