As concern IL-8, previous studies reported undetectable levels of IL-8 in the 77% of the patient population (Gülhan et al., 2016) or increased plasma levels of this chemokine in patients with thalassemia intermedia and major as compared to healthy subjects (Uguccioni et al., 1993; Dore et al., 1995; Oztürk et al., 2001). Here, CXCL8 is linked to beta-thalassemia intermedia.