Effects of smoking, aromatic amines, and chromates on CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes in male workers

To investigate effects of smoking, aromatic amines (AAs), and chromates (CRs) on T lymphocyte subpopulations, we measured CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of 33 nonexposed workers, 25 AA-use workers, 27 AA-production workers, and 19 CR workers (all subjects were males). The number of CD4+ T lymphocytes in smokers of nonexposed workers was significantly larger than that of the nonsmokers; also, the numbers of CD4+ and CD3+ T lymphocytes in smokers of each group of AA-production and AA-use workers were significantly larger than those in nonsmokers. Number of CD4+ and CD3+ T lymphocytes in nonsmokers of AA-production and CR workers were significantly smaller than those in nonsmokers of nonexposed workers; the number of CD8+ T lymphocytes in nonsmokers of CR workers was significantly smaller than that in nonsmokers of nonexposed workers. The cross-sectional study suggests that (1) smoking increases CD4+ (and CD3+) T lymphocytes in all categories of workers except for CR workers; (2) exposure to CRs and AAs decreases CD4+ (and CD3+) T lymphocytes; (3) the magnitude of decrease in CD4+ T lymphocytes is large among CR workers, intermediate among AA-production workers, and small among AA-use workers regardless of smoking status; and (4) exposure to CRs also decreases CD8+ T lymphocytes.