Relation of smoking status to a panel of inflammatory markers: The Framingham offspring

Abstract

Aims-We sought to investigate the hypothesis that smoking is accompanied by systemic inflammation.Methods and Results-We examined the relation of smoking to 11 systemic inflammatory markers in Framingham Study participants (n=2944, mean age 60 years, 55% women, 12% ethnic minorities) examined from 1998-2001. The cohort was divided into never (n=1149), former (n=1424), and current smokers with last cigarette >6 hours (n=134) or ≤6 hours (n=237) prior to phlebotomy. In multivariable-adjusted models there were significant overall between-smoking group differences (defined as p<0.0045 to account for multiple testing) for every inflammatory marker tested, except for serum CD40 ligand (CD40L), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and tumor necrosis factor receptor-2 (TNFR2). With multivariable-adjustment, pair-wise comparisons with never smokers revealed that former smokers had significantly lower concentrations of plasma CD40L (p<0.0001) and higher concentrations of C-reactive protein (p=0.002).Conclusions-As opposed to never smokers, those with acute cigarette smoke exposure (≤6 hours) had significantly higher concentrations of all markers (p<0.0001) except serum CD40L, MPO, and TNFR2; plasma CD40L were significantly lower. Compared with never smokers, cigarette smokers have significantly elevated concentrations of most circulating inflammatory markers, consistent with the hypothesis that smoking is associated with a systemic inflammatory state.

The Relationship Between Smoking Intensity and Subclinical Cardiovascular Injury: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

“…46 As a result, acute smoking exposure results in a systemic inflammatory response indicated by higher levels of leukocytes (neutrophils and macrophages) which release proinflammatory mediators such as TNF-α, IL-6 and hsCRP. 18,[47][48][49][50] The association of smoking and inflammation is also supported by epidemiologic studies which demonstrated a positive association of cigarettes per day with hsCRP, white blood cell count, and fibrinogen in univariate analyses. 25 Data from this study indicates that smoking intensity is independently associated with inflammation in a dose dependent manner and that hsCRP is the most sensitive biomarker of this association as compared to IL-2, IL-6, and TNF-alpha.…”

“…[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Cohort studies have traditionally been used to examine the chronic effects of smoking, but have rarely been used to evaluate immediate inhalational smoking exposure. 18 Long-term exposure is commonly assessed using smoking duration (years), or cumulative exposure (pack-years). In contrast, short-term exposure or "smoking intensity", is measured by the number of cigarettes smoked per day and urinary cotinine, a specific tobacco biomarker with a half-life of 16 hours.…”

C-Reactive Protein and Markers for Thrombophilia in Patients with Chronic Plaque Psoriasis

“…Another limitation of the study may be represented by the presence of an increased percentage of actual smokers in the group of psoriatic patients, because smoking has been hypothesized as being related to the presence of increased systemic inflammation, although data in literature are conflicting (31).…”

Central Adiposity Rather Than Total Adiposity Measurements Are Specifically Involved in the Inflammatory Status from Healthy Young Adults

“…Cigarette smoking is one of the main risk factors for the development of cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cardiovascular disease, most of which exhibit an inflammatory component at some stage of their time-course [42]. In fact, studies with elderly people have found higher CRP concentrations in former and current smokers, as compared to never smokers [43], indicating an effect .74, for men and women, respectively). Data are median (interquartile range).…”