Seven different serum cytokines (IL-6, IL-8, IL-12p70, IL-15, IL-17, TNFα and IFN-γ) were measured with Luminex 200 (Luminex Corporation, Austin, TX, USA) using a multiplex cytokine kit along with the assay performed in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions (R&D Systems, Minneapolis, MN, USA). Additionally, we used ELISA kits for quantitative determination of the two cytokines IL-9 and IP-10 (Quantikine; R&D Systems).