title: Effect of chromium on the level of IL-12 and IFN-gamma in occupationally exposed workers.
abstract: Chromium may affect humoral and cellular immunity, acting on T lymphocytes as well as on granulocytes and monocytes cells. Cytokines play an important role in the immune balance. In this study, the level of IL-12 and IFN-gamma were evaluated in the sera and PHA/LPS stimulated culture supernatant of human PBMCs of healthy volunteers and occupationally exposed chromium workers. All the workers were highly exposed to chromium having mean of 104.65+/-77.21 microg/dL (range 23.7-316.8 microg/dL). A suspension of exposed and unexposed human PBMC (0.5x10(6) cells/ml) prepared and cultured in RPMI-1640 supplemented with 10% FCS for 18 h in the presence or absence of LPS (10 ng/ml) which used for stimulation of IL-12 and IFN-gamma. The level of IL-12 and IFN-gamma were evaluated in the sera samples as well as LPS stimulated and unstimulated culture supernatant of h-PBMCs of chromium exposed workers. In these chromium exposed workers the level of IL-12 was 433.66+/-197.49 pg/ml and 983.45+/-330.99 pg/ml in LPS stimulated culture supernatant of normal individuals and highly chromium exposed workers, which was significant (P<0.05). Although the level of IL-12 was (78.61+/-61.03 pg/ml to 146.52+/-46.37 pg/ml) elevated in unstimulated culture supernatant of h-PBMCs of chromium exposed individuals as compared to control, but it was not significant. This observation also suggests that a significant increase in IFN-gamma production in LPS stimulated and unstimulated culture supernatant of h-PBMCs of chromium exposed workers as compared to control. However, IFN-gamma level have a significant positive correlation between blood chromium level (r=0.833, t=6.3872, P 0.05) and exposure time (in years) (r=0.8916, t=8.3540, P 0.05) of the occupationally exposed workers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, C S J M University, Kanpur, U.P., 208024 India. shashwatkatiyar0801@rediffmail.com
authors.forename: Shashwat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Katiyar
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Awasthi
authors.forename: Jatin K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Srivastava
mesh_terms: D002857:Chromium / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000506:poisoning*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000097:blood*; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000097:blood*; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D008669:Metallurgy; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins / Q000494:pharmacology; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013633:Tanning
chemical_list: D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D010835:Phytohemagglutinins; D002857:Chromium; D018664:Interleukin-12; D007371:Interferon-gamma