Glutathione redox system and antioxidant vitamins in smokers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of smoking on plasma glutathione redox system and antioxidant vitamins [A, E and C] levels. The study included 80 subjects: 20 healthy nonsmokers, 32 healthy asymptomatic smokers and 28 smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD]. The plasma lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation were significantly increased in the smokers [mild, moderate and heavy], an effect that was exaggerated in healthy smokers and smokers with COPD. Plasma levels of reduced glutathione [GSH], oxidized glutathione [GSSG] and activities of glutathione peroxidase [Se-GPx and Se-independent-GPx] were markedly increased in smokers compared with nonsmokers. It was concluded that cigarette smoking is involved in the development of oxidative stress by different mechanisms

Role of interleukin-8 in bronchial asthma

This study was carried out on 40 asthmatics [20 with mild asthma and 20 with severe asthma] as well as 20 age and sex matched healthy subjects as controls. The concentration of IL-8 in its free form was measured in sera from all subjects and in bronchoalveolar lavage [BAL] from subjects with mild asthma and ten subjects from the control group. This study showed a significant increase in the concentration of free IL-8 in the serum of subjects with severe asthma compared with subjects with mild asthma and the control group. The study also showed an insignificant difference in serum IL-8 level between subjects with mild asthma and control group. In patients with mild asthma, the concentration of IL-8 in BAL was insignificantly higher compared with the control subjects. The concentration of IL-8 in BAL was significantly higher compared with its value in the serum of patients with mild asthma and the control subjects