Table 1.
Male participant characteristics (N = 37).
Fig 1.
Overview of the study protocol.
Diagrammatic illustration of the study protocol. Arrows indicate samples collected at specific study visits.
Table 2.
Baseline immune parameters at different genital sites.
Fig 2.
Impact of penile-vaginal sex on soluble immune factors in the coronal sulcus.
Time course of IL-8 (pg/swab) changes after (A) condomless sex (N = 30), and (B) condom-protected sex (N = 8). Time course of MIG (pg/swab) changes after (C) condomless sex (N = 30), and (D) condom-protected sex (N = 8). Red dotted line represents immune parameter lower level of detection (LLOD), and numbers in red show the median cytokine concentration at each visit. Median change from baseline (log10 transformed) and interquartile range for penile immune parameters are shown at 1 hour post condomless (N = 30; E) or condom-protected sex (N = 8; F), at 7 hours post condomless (N = 30; G) or condom-protected sex (N = 8; H) and at 72 hours post condomless (N = 27; I) or condom-protected sex (N = 7; J). Cytokine concentrations were log10 transformed for illustration. Statistical comparisons used the two-tailed Wilcoxon Signed Ranked test, * p<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** p<0.001.
Fig 3.
Penile cytokine changes after sex.
The penile cytokine changes 1 hour, 7 hours and 72 hours after sex (condomless and condom-protected). Penile cytokine changes are presented as log2 transformed fold changes compared to baseline at each time point after sex. Scale denotes log2 transformed fold changes ranging from -12.15 to 15.54, and 1 is no change. The numbers of participants with paired samples are in 1hr = 38 in 7hrs = 38 and in 72hrs = 34.
Fig 4.
Circumcision status and penile cytokine changes after condomless sex.
Change (Δ) in the coronal sulcus level of (A) IL-8 (pg/swab) (B) MIG (pg/swab) (C) IP-10 (pg/swab) (D) MIP-1β (pg/swab) (E) IL-1α (pg/swab) (F) E-cadherin (pg/swab), (G) MMP9 (pg/swab) at 1 hour, 7 hours and 72 hours after condomless sex in uncircumcised men (N = 16) and circumcised men (N = 14). P-values refer to change from baseline in immune parameters, using two-tailed Wilcoxon Signed Ranked test. p>0.05 was considered non-significant (ns).
Fig 5.
Impact of penile-vaginal sex on blood CD4+β7 high T cells.
Change (Δ) in the proportion of CD4+β7 high T cell in blood 1 hour, 7 hours and 72 hours after condomless sex (N = 30). Statistical comparisons were performed using two-tailed Wilcoxon Signed Ranked test.