Abstract
Objective:To examine the effect of smoking on serum xanthine oxidase, malondialdehyde, α- tocopherol and ascorbic acid levels in healthy adult male subjects.Methods:This cross-sectional comparative study was carried out at Isra University Hyderabad from July 2012 to December 2012. One hundred and twenty apparently healthy adult male subjects (60 smokers and 60 non-smokers) included in present study, were recruited from Jaindal kot, a small village located midway between Hyderabad and Matiari. Serum samples from smokers and non-smokers were analyzed for xanthine oxidase and malondialdehyde levels by standard kit methods, while for ascorbic acid and alpha- tocopherol by spectrophotometric methods.Results:The mean xanthine oxidase and malondialdehyde levels measured in healthy smokers were 0.30±0.05 mg/dl and 37.50±4.05 µmoles/l respectively as against 0.25±0.04 mg/dl and 19.86±2.21µmoles/l in non-smokers. Both xanthine oxidase and malondialdehyde levels were significantly (p<0.001) raised in healthy smokers than in non-smokers. Likewise, mean vitamin E and vitamin C levels were respectively 0.69±0.37 mg/dl and 0.80±0.16 mg/dl in healthy smokers compared to 1.14±0.43 mg/dl and 1.22±0.29 mg/dl in non-smokers. The concentrations of both these vitamins were significantly (p<0.001) lower in smokers than in non-smokers.Conclusion:The results of present study demonstrate that smoking had significantly increased xanthine oxidase and malondialdehyde levels and decreased vitamins C and E (antioxidants) levels. These findings suggest that smokers have to take additional amounts of vitamins C and E in order to avoid deleterious effects of smoking on their health.
Highlights
The harmful effects of cigarette smoking on human health have been well documented.[1,2] It has been known that cigarette smoke carries around 4000 chemicals including toxic metals, poisonous gases and free radicals.[3]
Serum samples of smokers and non-smokers were analyzed for xanthine oxidase (XO) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels by Eliza kits, while for vitamins C and E by spectrophotometric methods.[18,19]
In Table-I mean serum XO and MDA levels are compared between healthy adult male smokers and non-smokers, while in Table-II mean serum vitamin E and vitamin C levels are compared between the subjects of two groups
Summary
The harmful effects of cigarette smoking on human health have been well documented.[1,2] It has been known that cigarette smoke carries around 4000 chemicals including toxic metals, poisonous gases and free radicals.[3] Amongst these constituents, free radicals are considered to be more dangerous as these owing to their unpaired electron are highly reactive and can cause oxidative damage to biomolecules and biomembranes.[4] In addition to cigarette smoke, the other main external sources for free radicals include air pollutants and industrial wastes.[5,6] In human body free radicals are normally produced as a result of regular metabolic processes such as mitochondrial respiration, arachidonic pathway, cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase pathways.[7] Generally free radicals generated inside the body are neutralized by antioxidantsmolecules that give up their own electrons to free radicals to make them inactive and unable to cause damage to biological membranes by lipid peroxidation.[8]
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