Affiliations: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Dental
Medicine, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest,
Romania | Institute of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine,
Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy | Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of General
Medicine, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest,
Romania | Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of
Dental Medicine, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy,
Bucharest, Romania | Department of Oral Surgery, Faculty of Dental
Medicine, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest,
Romania | Department of Fixed Prosthodontics and Dental
Occlusion, Faculty of Dental Medicine, "Carol Davila" University of Medicine
and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Maurizio Battino, Institute of
Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via
Ranieri, 65, 60100 Ancona, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Saliva is the first biological fluid that inhaled cigarette smoke
(CS) encounters. CS contains several carcinogens known to initiate and promote
tumourigenesis and metastasis. One of the aims of this study was to establish
if glutathione peroxidase and gamma-glutamyltranspherase (GGT) could be used as
possible markers for evaluating the oral oxidative stress caused by smoking.
The effect of CS on free radical generation was investigated using two methods.
Using different assays, different antioxidants present in saliva may be
evidenced due to the different principles on which they are based. Our results indicate that exposure to CS caused a statistically
significant decrease of both salivary glutathione peroxidase
(p < 0.01) and salivary GGT (p < 0.01).
We also found that exposure to CS caused a statistically significant
decrease of salivary total antioxidant status (p < 0.01).
Such decreases may have a consistent role in the mechanisms by which the toxic
effects of CS initiate oral inflammatory diseases, promote precancerous
transformations, and destroy the oral cavity homeostasis. Therefore the
evaluation of total antioxidant capacity of saliva is important but it must be
done together with the evaluation of salivary specific markers of oxidative
stress, such as uric acid, albumin and possibly, GGT.
Journal: BioFactors, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 129-136, 2008
