The purpose of this agreement is to fund the drawing, transporting, processing and analysis of blood specimens from the Framingham Heart Study cohort in Examination Cycle 22 and the collection of bioelectric impedance data from the members of the Framingham Heart Study cohort in Examination Cycle 22. Data collection in Framingham is complete and final files are being prepared. The measurement of cytokine levels in mononuclear cells at Tufts University, levels of inflammatory proteins and associated other biochemistries have been successful. Methodologic work over the year suggests that the delay of an hour in laboratory processing while the specimens are being transported from Framingham to Tufts has some effect on increasing the measurements; however, this effect is present in health younger persons as well as elderly and therefore should not affect the analysis of correlates of levels. Preliminary data on both stimulated and unstimulated levels of IL-1, TNF and IL-6 show fairly normal distributions of secretors and non-secretors for each cytokine.
