Soluble cytokine quantification
To measure multiple soluble cytokine levels in serum and culture supernatants from dyslipidemia patients and control subjects, we performed a cytometric bead assay (BD CBA, inflammatory cytokine array). Briefly, serum and supernatants samples were incubated with capture beads and detector antibodies; then, sandwich complexes were formed with these reagents and the analyte. These complexes were measured by flow cytometry, according to size and fluorescence characteristics of both the beads and the detector antibody, in an Accuri C6 cytometer using FCAP array software for analyses.