Effects of Mustard Gas on Immune System of Exposed Iranian People: A Review of Conducted Studies

Exposure to high dosages of sulfur mustard (sm) can cause bone marrow depression, immune system suppression, impairment of the immune functions, and eventually results in diseases due to secondary immune disorders. in this article, we have studied the effects of this poison on iranian veterans by analysis of related published studies. in a systematic search, the effects of sm gas on iranian victims were reviewed. we used known international medical databases such as isi, medline, scopus and iranian databases such as iranmedex and irandoc. about 350 published articles were assessed. among them, 43 articles were related to immunologic field. no special evaluation was conducted on the quality of the reviewed manuscripts and the credit of journal was considered sufficient. in accomplished studies conducted on iranian people, both cellular and humoral immunity were affected. the reported changes were as follows: increasing the number of inflammatory cells in chronic phase which indicates ongoing active alveolitis, neutrophils (in chronic bronchitis), eosinophils, crp titer, rf titer, igg (especially in asthmatic patterns) ,igm , ig e, il-6, tfg-beta1target protein in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and decreasing the number of leukocytes , lymphocytes, natural killer cells (nkcs), il-8and il-6 in blood. eventually, in reported changes, chemo taxis factors, plasma opsonins and nitroblue tetrazolium (nbt) test were normal. in sever and prolonged exposure to mustard gas, the immune system would be suppressed. therefore, the victims should be monitored for infections and even cancers.