Effects of smoking on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells / 解放军医学杂志

Objective To investigate the expression of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAchR) subunits, and the effects of smoking on its expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Methods Blood was collected from 92 healthy male smokers and 36 healthy male non-smokers. Peripheral blood monocytic cells were obtained, and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was employed to study the gene expression of 11 nAchR subunits (?2-?7, ?9, ?10, ?2-?4). Results The results showed that the PBMCs of smokers and non-smokers appeared to express ?2, ?5, ?6 and ?7 only out of 11 nAchR subunits. However, the expression of ?5 and ?7 subunits was lower in smokers′ PBMCs than in non-smokers′ (P