Salivary and Serum α-Amylase Activity and their Correlations with Oxidative Stress Index Among Different Iraqi Smokers Groups

Tobacco habit encountered around the world is fundamentally in the form of tobacco smoking, tobacco snuff and tobacco chewing use, while in India, tobacco is used in the form of bidis (34%), cigarettes (30%), chewing tobacco (19%), hookah (narghile) (9%), cigars and cheroots (5%), and snuff (2%) [1], In Iraq the smokers mostly use either cigarette, or narghile and sometime their combination. The works of many chemists and biologists over the past 50 years have shown the harmful effects of many tobacco components [2]. Today tobacco is the single most common preventable cause of death in the world. In the 20th century, more than 100 million people died worldwide due to use of tobacco and tobacco related products [3]. Even though the pancreas has been reported as one of the first organs pathologically affected by the tobacco smoking, the mechanism of its effect of action is not eventually recognized [4]. The exocrine function of pancreas involves the production of many enzymes used in the digestive process including serum alpha amylase [5]. Tobacco smoke has been pointed out to contain multiple agents with cytotoxic or carcinogenic effects on the exocrine pancreas as well as the existence of a close correlation between cigarette smoking and pancreatic cancer [6]. Moreover cigarette smoking among other reported bad effect on the body has been implicated as a risk factor for the development of pancreatitis, the exact mechanism of which remains controversial [7]. One of the suggested mechanism is the injury to the pancreatic acinar cells causes a complex cascade of events that includes increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) resulting in the oxidation of lipids and proteins and disruption of the pancreatic membrane [7]. On the other hand it was reported that during smoking, free radicals are formed that can activate inflammatory cells which generate high levels of reactive oxygen metabolites [8]. Tobacco smoke contains a stimulant, nicotine, “which is a highly addictive drug such as heroin, or cocaine. Nicotine creates a pleasant feeling which makes the smoker wants to smoke more [9]. A common belief is that smoking reduces aversive effects of stress, particularly negative effect, but there is relatively little behavioral evidence of this [10]. A recent systematic review of attitudes to narghile smoking affirmed this and added that the main motives for its use were socializing, relaxation, pleasure and entertainment [11]. Others believe that stress could increase smoking by dampening responses to nicotine, that is, smokers may smoke more after stress to compensate for attenuated effects [10].