Positive Health Online

Abstract

SCHERRER-CROSBIE and colleagues, Departement de Medecine Nucleaire, Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale Unite 296, Creteil, France write that cigarette smoking increases the permeability of alveolar epithelium to small solutes. The authors tested in the involvement of lipid peroxidation in this increased clearance.

Background

Methodology

8 asymptomatic young smokers were supplemented with oral vitamin E (1,000 IU/day) for 3 weeks, in a single-blind crossover study. Actue tobacco intoxication and lung function parameters were measured.

Results

Pulmonary clearance was abnormally increased and correlated strongly with expired CO, HbCO, urinary cotinine and Krogh factor (KCO). Supplementation with vitamin E neither decreased pulmonary clearance nor changed the above correlations. However, the strong correlations between pulmonary clearance and indices of acute tobacco intoxication, reflecting the amount of inhaled smoke and resultant oxidant stress, do not rule out the involvement of lipid peroxidation in the pulmonary clearance increase seen in smokers.

Conclusion

References

Scherrer-Crosbie M et al. Pulmonary clearance and lung function: influence of acute tobacco intoxication and of vitamin E. J Appl Physiol 81(3): 1071-7. Sep 1996.