Serum soluble Fas ligand and nitric oxide in long-term pulmonary complications induced by sulfur mustard: Sardasht-Iran Cohort Study

Article history:Received 26 May 2009Received in revised form 27 August 2009Accepted 27 August 2009Keywords:Fas ligandNitric oxideInflammationPulmonaryMustard gasIran Sulfur mustard (SM) has short- and long-term toxicity against various organs including the respiratorysystem. However, the basic and molecular mechanisms of SM long-term toxicity have not clearly beendefined. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the association of soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) as well asnitric oxide (NO) serum levels with long-term pulmonary complications in a SM exposed population20 years after SM exposure. In this historical cohort study 372 male SM exposed subjects and 128 age-matched unexposed controls were studied. Clinical evaluation and pulmonary function tests were carried outfor all participants and serum concentrations of sFasL and NO measured. According to our results, the serumlevels of sFasL and NO were not significantly different between the exposed and control groups. However,the serum levels of sFasL in the exposed group with pulmonary problems were significantly higher than theircorresponding in the control group (116.711±81.166 vs 86.027±30.199 and p=0.028). Furthermore asignificant elevation in sFasL levels was found in the exposed subjects with pulmonary problems comparedto those exposed participants without pulmonary problems (116.711±81.166 vs 90.692±57.853 andp=0.004). Based on Global Initiative for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) classification analysis apositive correlation was observed between sFasL levels and pulmonary problems. There was also asignificant negative correlation between sFasL and the white blood cell (WBC) count in the SM exposedcohort, but not in the control group. No significant association was shown between NO and pulmonaryimpairment in the SM exposed subjects. Thus, our results indicate that elevated serum levels of sFasL may beassociated with progression of pulmonary diseases in the SM exposed subjects.© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.