[The influence of smoking on plasma non-enzymatic antioxidant concentrations in active smokers (preliminary report)].

Tobacco smoke contains many reactive oxygen species (ROS) that cause oxidative stress. Crucial role in defending the organism against ROS play vitamins E and A. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of tobacco smoke on concentration of main ingredients of these vitamins alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol, as well as retinol. The study population consisted of 104 healthy males between the age of 34 and 45 years. Survey questionnaire and determination of plasma cotinine concentration were used to divide the group into smokers (62 males) and non-smokers (42 males). The arbitrary threshold value of plasma cotinine concentration was set to 15 ng/ml. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to estimate the plasma concentration of alpha- and gamma-tocopherol, retinol and cotinine. Within the smoking part of the study population a significantly lower (by 12.5%) concentration of alpha-tocopherol, and non-significantly higher (by 15.7%) concentration of gamma-tocopherol was ascertained, when compared to the plasma concentration of those compounds in the non-smoking group. Practically no difference in concentration of retinol was found between the two studied groups. In order to determine the magnitude of interdependency between the extensiveness of exposure to tobacco smoke and the concentration of analyzed antioxidants, correlations between their plasma concentrations and plasma concentration of cotinine were investigated. A significant, moderate and negative correlation of alpha-tocopherol versus cotinin was determined, in the smoking group as well as in the entire study population (r = -0.291 and r = - 0,317, respectively). Other relationship: gamma-tocopherol versus cotinine and retinol versus cotinine did not show any correlation. The obtained results suggest that tobacco smoke weakens the organism's antioxidant barrier by decreasing the concentration of plasma alpha-tocopherol, while not influencing significantly the plasma concentration of gamma-tocopherol and retinol.