Content area
Full Text
Environ Health Prev Med (2011) 16:307312 DOI 10.1007/s12199-010-0198-2
REGULAR ARTICLE
Effect of cigarette smoking on plasma uric acid concentrations
Dhouha Haj Mouhamed Asma Ezzaher
Fadoua Neffati Wahiba Douki Lot Gaha
Mohamed Fadhel Najjar
Received: 23 July 2010 / Accepted: 11 November 2010 / Published online: 18 December 2010 The Japanese Society for Hygiene 2010
AbstractObjectives The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cigarette smoking on plasma uric acid concentration and to determine the correlation between this parameter and the biological tobacco markers, plasma thiocyanate and urinary cotinine.
Methods The initial study was conducted on 300 subjects; 138 of them were nonsmokers (62 men and 76 women) aged 1472 years and 162 were current smokers (145 men and 17 women) aged 1685 years. Uric acid, creatinine, and urinary cotinine were determined by the enzymatic colorimetric method and plasma thiocyanate by selective electrode.
Results Plasma uric acid concentration was signicantly lower in smokers than in nonsmokers. A statistically signicant negative correlation was noted between the smoking status parameters, including both the number of cigarettes smoked/day (F3161 = 12.063; r = -0.9968;
p = 0.0001) and the duration of smoking (F3161 = 1.305;
r = -0.9406; p = 0.0274), and the plasma uric acid.
Among smokers, we noted a negative correlation between uric acid and both plasma thiocyanates (r = -0.437; p \ 0.05) and urinary cotinine (r = -0.580; p \ 0.05).
Conclusion After excluding the other factors affecting the uric acid levels, the signicant low plasma uric acid in smokers was attributed to a reduction of the endogenous
production as a result of the chronic exposure to cigarette smoke that is a signicant source of oxidative stress. Therefore, it is recommended to stop or reduce smoking and to introduce plasma uric acid estimation as a routine test, since it is cheap and simple to reect the antioxidant level.
Keywords Cigarette smoking Urinary cotinine Plasma
thiocyanate Uric acid Oxidative stress
Introduction
Cigarette smoking is known to contribute to many diseases, including cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, cardiovascular diseases, and peptic ulcers [1, 2]. Investigators have attempted to elucidate the mechanisms of the pathogenesis associated with cigarette smoking, but the conclusions were not consistent. A basic hypothesis is that free radicals cause oxidative...