Background: Environmental pollutants might be among the etiological factors for multiple sclerosis. The high rise of CD8 and CD4 are the common accepted pathway for the chronic inflammation to myelin sheath proteins developing the different clinical types of MS.
Objectives: To measure the level of blood lead, cadmium, mercury, CD4 and CD8 among the different clinical types of MS cases compared to controls, to find out if there is correlation between the level of the measured heavy metals and the degree of disability among the studied cases of multiple sclerosis.
Methodology: Case-Control study was conducted at El Hussein University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt during the period (April 2017- February 2020). The calculated sample size was 50 for cases and controls. Subjects were selected by simple random technique.
Results: Mean blood lead of cases was higher that observed among controls (62.1±3.2 μg/L versus 19.3±1.5μg/L) with statistical significant difference p=0.000001). In regard to blood mercury: mean among cases was higher than controls (25.1 ± 0.88 μg/L versus 2.3 ± 0.2 μg/L) with statistically significant difference between two groups by Levine's t test (t=5.5, p=0.000001). There was a positive correlation between lead and Mercury with CD4 and CD8 among cases of Relapsing Remitting MS and among cases of Primary Progressive MS.
Conclusion: Lead and Mercury might be a risk factor for trigger CD4 and CD8 among the studied cases of MS.