Abstract
Background and Objectives
Immune abnormalities are the fourth leading cause of death in thalassemia major patients. These patients are affected by stimulating chronic immunosuppression and immune deficiency following repeated blood transfusions and iron overload. Considering the role of chemokine network in immunosuppression, we examined the role of CCL-5 chemokine and its receptor CCR-5 in β-Thalassemia major patients.
 
Materials and Methods
In the present case/control study, 45 β-thalassemia patients having referred to Kerman Special Health Center and 45 healthy subjects as controls participated. For the expression of CCR-5 and CCL5 receptor expression, flow cytometry and ELISA were used, respectively. After the tests, T-test and SPSS software version 22 were used for analysis and p < 0.05 was considered as a significant difference.
 
Results
Our results indicated that both CCR5 and CCL-5 were induced in β-thalassemia patients compared to the control (p< 0.05).
 
Conclusions 
This study showed the increase of CCL5/CCR5-receptor chemokine-centered axis in patients with thalassemia major compared with healthy subjects and similarly the very increase in patients with spleen compared with those without. Due to the fact that a study on this chemokine network has not been done so far, it is necessary to repeat this study with more samples and to carefully examine the role of the spleen.