In the HIV-infected PSS group, IL-10 was significantly positively correlated with IL-12p40, IL-12p70, MIP-1α, MIP-1β, IL-5, IL-6, IL-7 and IL-8 (r = 0.36, 0.67, 0.59, 0.61, 0.75, 0.79, 0.83, 0.53, respectively; Additional file 1: Table S2a). Here, CXCL8 is linked to peeling skin syndrome.