Iranian Journal of War and Public Health

Chemical warfare agents especially sulfur mustard has been widely used in Iraq-Iran conflict. Long-term complications of the respiratory system, eyes and skin that are most common involved organs in victims, proposed possible involvement of immune and inflammatory reactions. IL-19 is a novel member of IL-10 superfamily that has ascribed to be a pro-inflammatory cytokine in the most studies and anti-inflammatory in some studies. According to the importance of IL-19 as a member of IL-10 family, we decided to evaluate serum level of this cytokine in the sera of chemical victims. This case-control study was conducted on 144 severe lung injured sulfur mustard war victims, 57 mild to moderate lung injured sulfur mustard war victims and 55 unexposed participants as control group. The serum concentration of IL-19 was measured by a sandwich ELISA technique (R &D system Eliza kit) and read by ELISA reader instrument. The present study showed that although the serum level of IL-19 in the unexposed control group is more than the exposed group and also is increased in the mild to moderate exposed group compared to the severe exposed group, but these increases are not statistically significant. Median and mean of the serum IL-19 level in the exposed group increase with the increasing FEV1, FVC and decrease with the increasing FEV1/FVC but it was not statistically significant. There were significant correlation between serum level of IL-19 and FEV1/FVC in the exposed group (P=0.022). Although there is no significant difference in serum level of IL-19 between exposed and non exposed groups, but the role of this cytokine as an inflammatory factor in local inflammation and inflammatory processes is not completely rejected.