Background: Aviation can be a stressful environment for human. The pilots can suffer from great anxiety during military air travels. Apart from stress, microgravity, cosmic radiations and low oxygen pressure in high altitude, can affect the physiological systems of human body, especially the immune system. The purpose of this study is to investigate different parts of the immune system in the air force pilots.
Materials and methods: In a case-control study, twenty pilots were compared with control group cellular surface markers CD3, CD4, CD8 and CD56 using flow cytometry technique. IgM and IgG levels against herpes simplex virus 1, 2(HSV-1,2), Cytomegalovirus(CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) were also analyzed by ELISA method.
Results: The results of this study showed that peripheral blood neutrophil cells percentage, cytotoxic T cells ( and natural killer cells ( were significantly higher in the pilots compared to the control group (p<0.05). In contrary, total peripheral blood lymphocytes percentage and helper T cells ( were significantly lower in the pilots (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The results indicated that aviation can change pilots' immune system, especially their cellular immunity.