Long term impact of sulfur mustard exposure on peripheral blood mononuclear subpopulations — Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study (SICS) Tooba Ghazanfari a, ⁎, Amina Kariminia b , Roya Yaraee a , Soghrat Faghihzadeh c , Sussan K. Ardestani d , Massoumeh Ebtekar e , Ali Mostafaie f , Abbas Foroutan g , Abbas Rezaei h , Jalaleddin Shams a , Mahmoud Mahmoudi i , Mohammad R. Vaez-Mahdavi j , Mohammad R. Soroush k , Mohammadreza Jalali-Nadoushan a , Sakine Moaiedmohseni a , Soheila Ajdary l , Hiedeh Darabi l , Mohammad M. Naghizadeh m , Hadi Kazemi n, o , Zuhair M. Hassan e a Immunoregulation Research Center, Shahed University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran b Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada c Department of Biostatistics and Social Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Islamic Republic of Iran d Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran e Department of Immunology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran f Medical Biology Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Islamic Republic of Iran g Department of Physiology, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran h Department of Immunology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran i Immunology Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Islamic Republic of Iran j Department of Physiology, Shahed University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran k Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran l Department of Immunology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran m Fasa University of Medical Science, Fasa, Fars Province, Islamic Republic of Iran n Shafa Neuroscience Research Center, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran o Department of Pediatrics, Shahed University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran abstract article info Article history: Received 31 January 2012 Received in revised form 29 November 2012 Accepted 27 December 2012 Available online xxxx Keywords: Sulfur mustard Pulmonary function Leukocyte sub-sets NK cells The most important long-term morbidity problem of sulfur mustard (SM) toxicity is pulmonary complications but the pathogenesis of these complications is not clearly understood. This study evaluates the peripheral blood mononuclear sub-sets and their correlation with pulmonary function in SM exposed civilian cases 20 years post-exposure as gathered in the context of the Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study (SICS). Samples were ran- domly selected from two groups, SM-exposed (n=372) and control (n= 128), with the same ethnicity, culture, and demography. Three color flow cytometry was applied for peripheral blood mononuclear sub-population de- termination. Results indicated a significant decrease in CD45+/CD3+, CD45+/CD3+/CD4+, and an increase in CD3+/CD16+56+ percentages. It was also found that absolute count of NK cells was highly increased in periph- eral blood of exposed cases. There was a significant increase in NK cell count of SM exposed group with pulmo- nary problems as compared to the same group without pulmonary problems (p-value b 0.04) based on the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). The findings showed a significant negative correlation between absolute numbers of T lymphocyte and FVC % and positive correlation with FEV1/FVC%. The results also demonstrated that absolute numbers of monocytes had a negative correlation with FVC %. We propose that NK and T cells are probably involved in the pathogenesis or immune reactions to the delayed pulmonary complications induced by SM. This hypothesis should be tested in a more severe pulmonary complicated group. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The most important long-term morbidity problem of Sulfur Mustard (SM) toxicity is pulmonary complications but the pathogenesis of these complications is not clearly understood. As has been reported, SM exposure can lead to the development of a series of chronic destruc- tive pulmonary complications. Different diagnoses including asthma, chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, airway narrowing due to searing or granulation tissue, pulmonary fibrosis [1] obliterative bronchiolitis (OB) [2,3], bronchiolectasis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [4] were reported but there are unknown cell and molecular mechanisms underlying SM induced lung complications. It is well International Immunopharmacology xxx (2013) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author at: Dep of Immunology, Medical Faculty, Shahed Univer- sity, PO. Box: 14155-7435, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. Tel.: +98 2188964792; fax: +98 2188966310. E-mail addresses: tghazanfari@yahoo.com, ghazanfari@shahed.ac.ir (T. Ghazanfari). INTIMP-02768; No of Pages 5 1567-5769/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2012.12.023 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect International Immunopharmacology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/intimp Please cite this article as: Ghazanfari T, et al, Long term impact of sulfur mustard exposure on peripheral blood mononuclear subpopulations — Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study (SICS), Int Immunopharmacol (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intimp.2012.12.023