Open Access

ARTICLE

Limited effect of selected organic pollutants on cytokine production by peripheral blood leukocytes

Sabrina Devos¹, Rosette Van Den Heuvel², Robert Hooghe^1,2, Elisabeth L. Hooghe-Peters¹

1 Neuroendocrine Immunology, Pharmacology Department, Medical School, Free University of Brussels (V.U.B.), Belgium
2 Environmental Toxicology, Flemish Institute for Technlogical Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium

* Corresponding Author: Sabrina Devos,

European Cytokine Network 2004, 15(2), 145-151.

Accepted 06 March 2004;

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that some persistent organic pollutants contribute to the increased prevalence of allergic disease, the effects of selected compounds on cytokine production by PBMC from control and allergic donors were evaluated. Cells were cultured for six days in the presence of a xenobiotic (PCB 153, hexachloroben-zene, pentachlorobenzene, pentachlorophenol, lindane, atrazine or DMSO vehicle) with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) or Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus extract, then for one day in the presence of PHA + phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. PCB 153 reduced the levels of IL-10, IFN-γ and TNF-α. Hexachlorobenzene reduced the levels of IL-5, IL-10 and IFN-γ. Pentachlorobenzene reduced IL-6 levels. Pentachlorophenol reduced IL-5 levels. Lindane and atrazine reduced both IL-5 and IFN-γ. In addition, lindane reduced TNF-α levels. As these compounds had similar effects on cells from allergic and non-allergic donors, and as these effects were, in all cases, very limited indeed, the potential deleterious impact of the xenobiotics tested on the allergic response seems unlikely.

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