Hypoallergenic formula with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG for babies with colic: A pilot study of recruitment, retention, and fecal biomarkers

Table 3 Longitudinal analysis of cytokins by study group (LGG+ vs LGG-) at baseline and follow up visits

	Adjusted geometric means (95%CI)		P
	LGG+ group	LGG- group
Cytokines
IFN-γ (pg/mL)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	0.7 (0.4, 1.3)	0.6 (0.3, 1.2)	0.84
Visit 2	1.2 (0.7, 2.0)	0.5 (0.3, 0.9)	0.04
Visit 4	0.4 (0.3, 0.6)	0.2 (0.1, 0.4)	0.07
IL-10 (pg/mL)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	3.7 (2.3, 6.0)	4.2 (2.2, 8.1)	0.78
Visit 2	4.3 (3.2, 5.7)	3.8 (2.3, 6.4)	0.72
Visit 4	2.7 (1.7, 4.2)	2.0 (1.1, 3.7)	0.47
IL-12p70 (pg/mL)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	0.2 (0.1, 0.4)	0.2 (0.1, 0.4)	0.85
Visit 2	0.3 (0.2, 0.4)	0.4 (0.3, 0.6)	0.29
Visit 4	0.2 (0.1, 0.5)	0.3 (0.2, 0.4)	0.57
IL-1β (pg/mL)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	0.08 (0.05, 0.13)	0.19 (0.08, 0.43)	0.09
Visit 2	0.27 (0.08, 0.88)	0.15 (0.06, 0.40)	0.45
Visit 4	0.11 (0.05, 0.21)	0.16 (0.05, 0.49)	0.52
IL-6 (pg/mL)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	0.3 (0.2, 0.5)	0.4 (0.3, 0.6)	0.36
Visit 2	0.3 (0.2, 0.6)	0.3 (0.2, 0.4)	0.66
Visit 4	0.2 (0.1, 0.4)	0.2 (0.1, 0.3)	0.63
IL-8 (pg/mL)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	6.5 (4.8, 8.7)	7.0 (5.3, 9.4)	0.69
Visit 2	5.4 (4.1, 7.3)	9.5 (6.6, 13.7)	0.02
Visit 4	4.9 (3.2, 7.5)	4.6 (2.8, 7.8)	0.88
TNF-α (pg/mL)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	4.5 (3.8, 5.3)	4.8 (3.7, 6.2)	0.69
Visit 2	5.4 (4.4, 6.5)	4.2 (3.2, 5.5)	0.15
Visit 4	4.4 (3.3, 5.9)	5.7 (4.7, 6.9)	0.14
Treg (%)
Visit 1 (Baseline)	7.2 (6.5, 8.0)	6.7 (5.9, 7.5)	0.37
Visit 2	7.5 (6.8, 8.2)	8.5 (7.0, 10.3)	0.23
Visit 4	7.5 (6.1, 9.3)	9.2 (8.1, 10.5)	0.10

Longitudinal model: ln(cytokines) = β₀ + β₁× visit2 + β₂× visit4 + β₃× group + β₄× visit2 group + β₅× visit4 group; Here, visit2, visit4 are dummy variables; visit2 = 1 if at visit 2, 0 otherwise; visit4 = 1 if at visit 4, 0 otherwise; group = 1 if in LGG group, 0 otherwise. The geometric mean is the anti-log of arithmetic mean of log-transformed value. P values are obtained using wald test to test whether the differences of cytokines between study groups are significant at each visit.