Alterations in the serum levels of chemokines 20 years after sulfur mustard exposure: Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study

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.