Alterations in the serum levels of chemokines 20 years after sulfur mustard exposure: Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study Tooba Ghazanfari a,b, ⁎, Roya Yaraee a,b , Amina Kariminia c , Massoumeh Ebtekar d , Soghrat Faghihzadeh e , Mohammad R. Vaez-Mahdavi f , Abbas Rezaei g , Mohammad Vojgani h , Mohammad R Soroush i , Arezou Kermani-Jalilvand a , Parisa Mohammadi j , Abbas Foroutan k , Zuhair M Hassan d a Immunoregulation Research Center, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran b Department of Immunology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran c Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada d Department of Immunology, Tarbiat Moddarres University, Tehran, Iran e Department of Biostatistics, Tarbiat Moddarres University, Tehran, Iran f Department of Physiology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran g Department of Immunology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran h Department of Immunology, Medical faculty, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran i Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran j Department of Biology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran k Department of Physiology, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran abstract article info Article history: Received 26 May 2009 Received in revised form 27 August 2009 Accepted 27 August 2009 Keywords: Inflammatory mediators Chemokines MCP-1/CCL2 RANTES/CCL5 IL-8/CXCL8 Fractalkine/CX3CL1 Mustard gas Pulmonary Iran The serum levels of four important and well characterized inflammatory chemokines including MCP-1/CCL2, RANTES/CCL5, IL-8/CXCL8 and Fractalkine/CX3CL1 were evaluated in sulfur mustard (SM) exposed Iranian population 20 years after exposure. In this historical cohort study 372 SM exposed participants from Sardasht, and 128 unexposed participants as controls were studied. The serum concentrations of chemokines were measured by a sandwich ELISA technique. The serum concentrations in the exposed comparing to the control group were 201.86 vs 180.60 pg/ml (p = 0.002), for MCP-1/CCL2, 1182.6 vs 1393.1 pg/ml (p = 0.021) for RANTES/CCL5, 12.61 vs 15 pg/ml (p =0.002) for IL-8/CXCL8 and 0.696 vs 0.0648 (p =0.413) for Fractalkine/CX3CL1. In conclusion, elevated levels of MCP-1/CCL2 may suggest an anti inflammatory response and decreased levels of IL-8/CXCL8 and RANTES/CCL5 may represent a different pathophysiology and diverse molecular mechanisms involved in long term clinical manifestations of SM exposure. However, further prospect into their role in the pathogenesis of SM remains to be done. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Sulfur mustard (SM) more commonly called “mustard gas” is one of a class of vesicant chemical warfare agents with the ability to form vesicles or blisters on the exposed skin. SM induces early and late disabling effects on health status [1]. The most important target organs affected by acute toxicity of SM are the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, eyes, skin, bone marrow and the immune and central nervous systems [2]. Many years after exposure, people who have been ex- posed to SM are still suffering from its late complications including ocular, coetaneous, respiratory and psychological disorders [3,4]. Sardasht is a town in the north-west of Iran close to the Iraqi border. Civilians of Sardasht were exposed to mustard gas on June 28, 1987 [5,6]. At the present time, more than 20 years after expo- sure, many of them are still suffering from SM induced long term complications, mainly in their lungs, skin and eyes [7]. A historical cohort study, Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study (SICS), was established on Sardasht population 20 years after SM exposure. In this study diverse clinical complications, basic parameters and the life style of the exposed people were evaluated [8,9]. The results of clinical evaluations in previous studies proposed the possible involvement of immune and inflammatory reactions in long term SM complications [10,11]. Chemokines are a large family of structurally related chemotactic cytokines that play a major role in regulation of inflammation and various immune responses [12]. They have been subdivided into four major groups, designated as CXC (α hemokines), CC (β chemokines), International Immunopharmacology 9 (2009) 1471–1476 ⁎ Corresponding author. Department of Immunology, Medical Faculty, Shahed University, P.O. Box: 14155-7435, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Tel.: +98 2188964792; fax: +98 2188966310. E-mail addresses: ghazanfari@shahed.ac.ir, tghazanfari@yahoo.com (T. Ghazanfari). 1567-5769/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.intimp.2009.08.022 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Immunopharmacology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/intimp