Table 3 Serum protein concentrations of dust exposed workers and unexposed controls in the Norwegian grain and animal feed industry.

From: Circulating miRNAs as molecular markers of occupational grain dust exposure

 

Exposed workers (n = 44)

Controls (n = 22)

Group differences

GM (GSD)

GMadj (GSE)

GM (GSD)

GMadj (GSE)

p value

p valueadj

CC-16 (ng/mL)

5.1 (1.4)

–

3.9 (1.4)

–

0.004

–

SP-D (ng/mL)

99.7 (1.7)

105 (1.1)

101 (1.9)

112 (1.1)

0.9

0.6

SP-A (µg/mL)

24.3 (11.7)

-

38 (5.8)

–

0.4

–

IL-6 (pg/mL)

1.8 (1.8)

1.8 (1.1)

1.2 (1.7)

1.2 (1.1)

0.01

0.004

TNF-α (pg/mL)

1.1 (1.3)

1.1 (1.1)

1.1 (1.4)

1.1 (1.1)

0.9

0.9

Fibrinogen (mg/mL)

3.3 (1.4)

–

3.8 (1.3)

–

0.1

–

CRP (mg/L)

1.5 (2.9)

1.4 (1.2)

1.3 (2.7)

1.3 (1.2)

0.7

0.8

sCD40L (ng/mL)

2.0 (2.5)

1.9 (1.2)

1.5 (2.7)

1.6 (1.2)

0.3

0.4

sP-selectin (ng/mL)

52.7 (1.6)

–

51 (1.7)

–

0.8

–

  1. GM geometric mean, GSD geometric standard deviation, GMadj geometric mean adjusted for confounders, GSE standard error of GMadj; adjustments. SP-D % body fat and farm childhood, IL-6% body fat, TNF-α age and % body fat, CRP age and % body fat, sCD40L % body fat.
  2. Differences in the GM between exposed workers and controls were tested by independent sample t tests. Significant different concentrations, as judged by a p value ≤ 0.05, are highlighted in bold.
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