Comparison of urinary cytokines after ingestion of cranberry juice cocktail in pregnant subjects: a pilot study.
Our objective was to evaluate urinary cytokine excretion after daily cranberry or placebo exposure in pregnant women. Four-hour urine samples were collected from 27 pregnant women subjects who were randomized to cranberry juice cocktail or placebo in three treatment arms: A: Cranberry (C) two times daily (C, C; n = 10 pregnant); B: cranberry in the AM, then placebo (P) in the PM (C, P; n = 9 pregnant); and C: placebo two times daily (P, P; n = 8 pregnant). Urinary cytokines were measured using commercially available kits. There was a statistically significant difference in interleukin (IL)-6 of the urinary cytokines between the multiple daily cranberry dosing group (group A [C, C]): median, 3.16 (range, 0.01 to 7.34) and the placebo group (group C [P, P]): 9.32 (0.53 to 29.61 pg/mL; p = 0.038, Kruskal-Wallis test). We concluded that a difference in IL-6 was found in the multiple daily cranberry dosing groups compared with placebo. Lack of differences based on treatment allocation in the other cytokines may be due to beta error. Further studies are planned to evaluate these assays for the assessment of clinical effect.