INTRODUCTION Understanding what people think about harmful and potentially harmful constituents in cigarettes and cigarette smoke has new urgency given legislation requiring US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to disclose constituent information. Our study sought to obtain qualitative information on what people think about these constituents and the language they use to talk about them. MET...

Goblet cell metaplasia is an important morphological feature in the airways of patients with chronic airway diseases; however, the precise mechanisms that cause this feature are unknown. We investigated the role of endogenous platelet-activating factor (PAF) in airway goblet cell metaplasia induced by cigarette smoke in vivo. Guinea pigs were exposed repeatedly to cigarette smoke for 14 consecu...

Cigarette smoke is the major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic inflammatory disease of the airway. The increased expression of inflammatory proteins results from enhanced gene transcription, as these mediators are induced in a cell-specific manner. Changes in transcription depend on chromatin remodeling and the relative activities of histone acetyl-transferases (H...

PURPOSE To investigate the effects of exposure to cigarette and alcohol on immunohistochemical disorders caused by these attacks to respiratory system of rats. METHODS Sixty male Wistar rats in four groups: control, cigarette smoke, alcohol and cigarette smoke + alcohol during 260 days. Immunohistochemistry was performed by researching survivin and protein P53 expressions and apoptotic index ...

The purpose of this study was to determine whether mice exposed to chronic cigarette smoke develop features of early age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Two month old C57Bl6 mice were exposed to either filtered air or cigarette smoke in a smoking chamber for 5 h/day, 5 days/week for 6 months. Eyes were fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde/2% paraformaldehyde and examined for ultrastructural changes...

Influenza virus is a common respiratory tract viral infection. Although influenza can be fatal in patients with chronic pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, its pathogenesis is not fully understood. The Nrf2-mediated antioxidant system is essential to protect the lungs from oxidative injury and inflammation. In the present study, we investigated the role of Nrf2 in ...

Cigarette smoke exposure is associated with increased risk of various diseases. Epithelial cells-mediated innate immune responses to infectious pathogens are compromised by cigarette smoke. Although many studies have established that cigarette smoke exposure affects the expression of Toll-liked receptor (TLR), it remains unknown whether the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing p...

Background. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common, smoking-related lung disease. Patients with COPD frequently suffer disease exacerbations induced by bacterial respiratory infections, suggestive of impaired innate immunity. Low-dose oxygen is a mainstay of therapy during COPD exacerbations; yet we understand little about whether oxygen can modulate the effects of cigarette s...

INTRODUCTION Waterpipe smoking is harmful and addictive and can be a gateway to cigarette smoking. This study examined the association between curiosity and susceptibility to cigarette smoking among cigarette-naïve US youth who smoke waterpipe using cross-sectional data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, 2014. METHODS Susceptibility to cigarettes was assessed using a composite index of thr...

Increased lung cell apoptosis and necrosis occur in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Mitochondria are crucially involved in the regulation of these cell death processes. Cigarette smoke is the main risk factor for development of COPD. We hypothesized that cigarette smoke disturbs mitochondrial function, thereby decreasing the capacity of mitochondria for ATP synthesis...