Higher Leukocyte Subpopulation Counts in Healthy Smoker Industrial Workers than in Nonsmoker Industrial Workers: Possible Health Consequences

Abstract

Objectives: Cigarette smoke contains free radicals, which cause injury to endothelial cells and oxidize bioactive components in the blood. Neutrophils, a subpopulation of leukocytes, contain the enzyme myeloperoxidase that mediates production of hypochlorous acid during oxidative stress. In this study, we investigated whether smoker industrial workers had significantly higher neutrophil counts than nonsmoker industrial workers. Design and Methods: We collected blood samples from 183 apparently healthy male and 30 female industrial workers. We obtained blood cell counts, measured the concentration of plasma aminothiols and determined the concentration of serum and erythrocyte folate and serum vitamin B₁₂ in the samples. Results: Smoker industrial workers had significantly higher neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil and basophil counts than nonsmoker industrial workers (p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001 and p = 0.01, respectively). Mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin in smoker industrial workers were higher than in nonsmoker industrial workers (p = 0.001 and p = 0.03). Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that smoker industrial workers have higher neutrophil counts than nonsmoker industrial workers. Therefore, our observations suggest that smokers may become more easily prone to chronic inflammation than nonsmokers. About 84% of the study participants were male subjects; therefore, our findings may be more representative for men than women.

Early Biochemical and Hematological Response to Intramuscular Cyanocobalamin Therapy in Vitamin B₁₂-Deficient Patients

“…The concentration of s-MMA was measured by a modification of the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method of Rifai et al [22], with intra- and interassay coefficient of variation of 2 and 4%, respectively. The concentration of serum folate (s-folate), erythrocyte folate and serum vitamin B 12 were measured according to the methods described previously [23]. The hematological parameters were determined with a Technicon hematological analyzer, as reported earlier [24].…”

“…The data based on the concentrations of serum vitamin B 12 , plasma aminothiols, serum and erythrocyte folate and aminothiols showed skewed distribution [12,23]. Therefore, the nonparametric Friedman's test was used to explore the changes in the concentrations of vitamins, aminothiols, s-MMA and hematological parameters during the 3-week vitamin therapy.…”