A study of interaction of cigarette smoke with alpha-1 antitrypsin and adenosine deaminase in patients of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and antioxidant role of vitamin E

Abstract

Lungs are the only organs which are continuously exposed to external environment through the process of breathing. The cigarette smoking is main leading cause of various morbidities related to lungs. Adenosine deaminase (ADA) and alpha-1 antitrypsin (A1AT) are the two very important parameters of which ADA is required for maintaining proper immunity and A1AT is required for resolving oxidant stress on lungs by various mechanism. In the present study we evaluated the level of these parameters in active cigarette smokers without lung disease and COPD patients, and found that ADA level was significantly high in healthy smokers and COPD patients as compared to healthy controls (P<0.001). Whereas significantly lower levels of alfa-1 antitrypsin (P<0.001) as compared to healthy controls. The present study consist of total 100 subjects as healthy controls, 6o as active smokers and 6o as COPD patients. We also assessed effect of vitamin E supplementation in smokers and COPD patients. It has been found that there is significant recovery in the above mentioned parameters after treatment with vitamin E; confirming protective antioxidant role of vitamin E. Thus the present study confirmed the deliberate overactivity of adenosine deaminase and decreased activity of alpha-1 antitrypsin in COPD patients and smokers leading to oxidative stress and various lung diseases.