This article is part of the supplement: Fatty acids and neuropsychiatric disorders

Research

A comparison of oxidative stress in smokers and non-smokers: an in vivo human quantitative study of n-3 lipid peroxidation

Basant K Puri¹ , Ian H Treasaden² , Massimo Cocchi³ , Sofia Tsaluchidu³ , Lucio Tonello³ and Brian M Ross⁴

¹MRI Unit, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Imaging Sciences Department, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, London W12 0HS, UK

²Three Bridges Medium Secure Unit, West London Mental Health NHS Trust, Uxbridge Road, Southall, Middlesex UB1 3EU, UK

³Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

⁴Division of Medical Sciences, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Lakehead University, Room MS 3002, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada P7B 5E1, and Department of Chemistry, Lakehead University, and Public Health Program, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ont., Canada P7B 5E1

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BMC Psychiatry 2008, 8(Suppl 1):S4doi:10.1186/1471-244X-8-S1-S4

Published:	17 April 2008

Abstract

Background

Cigarette smoking is believed to cause oxidative stress by several mechanisms, including direct damage by radical species and the inflammatory response induced by smoking, and would therefore be expected to cause increased lipid peroxidation. The aim was to carry out the first study of the relationship of smoking in humans to the level of n-3 lipid peroxidation indexed by the level of ethane in exhaled breath.

Methods

Samples of alveolar air were obtained from 11 smokers and 18 non-smokers. The air samples were analyzed for ethane using mass spectrometry.

Results

The two groups of subjects were matched with respect to age and gender. The mean cumulative smoking status of the smokers was 11.8 (standard error 2.5) pack-years. The mean level of ethane in the alveolar breath of the group of smokers (2.53 (0.55) ppb) was not significantly different from that of the group of non-smokers (2.59 (0.29) ppb; p = 0.92). With all 29 subjects included, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient between ethane levels and cumulative smoking status was -0.11 (p = 0.58), while an analysis including only the smokers yielded a corresponding correlation coefficient of 0.11 (p = 0.75).

Conclusion

Our results show no evidence that cigarette smoking is related to increased n-3 lipid peroxidation as measured by expired ethane.