Effects of Alcohol, Passive Smoking and Alcohol Plus Passive Smoking on Some Serum Biochemical Variables in Mice

Authors: MUSTAFA ALTINIŞIK, MUHARREM BALKAYA, FUNDA KARGIN, HÜMEYRA ÜNSAL, CENGİZ ÜNSAL

Abstract: The effects of alcohol, passive smoking and alcohol+passive smoking on certain biochemical variables were investigated in mice serum. For this purpose, 72 female and 49 male Swiss albino mice were used. The animals were approximately 10 weeks old at the beginning of the experiment and their initial body weights ranged from 22 to 31 g. All animals were divided randomly into four groups; the control, alcohol, passive smoking and alcohol+passive smoking groups. Alcohol was given in drinking water at a v/v ratio of 10% during the first week, 20% during the second week and 30% during the following four weeks. Side-stream smoking was carried out over a two-hour period per day. A total of 4, 8 or 12 lit cigarettes per cage containing 5 mice were used for the first, second and the following four weeks, respectively. Water and food were given to the animals ad libitum. Blood samples were collected at the end of experimental period from the Aorta abdominalis into serum tubes under ether anaesthesia. The activities of enzymes ALT, AST and alkaline phosphatase, and the concentrations of glucose, total protein, total bilirubin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, chloride, potassium and sodium were determined in serum. The data was analysed with a t-test and analyses of variance (M-ANOVA) in relation to within or between group differences with significance assessed at the level of p<0.05. In the control group, serum ALT activity and glucose concentration were higher in female animals than in males (p<0.05). Furthermore, serum ALT activities as well as serum glucose and total bilirubin concentrations of both female and male animals in the alcohol drinking group were significantly lower when compared with those of the control group (p<0.05, p<0.05 and p<0.01, respectively). In the group exposed to smoke, only serum sodium levels in females were significantly higher, whereas those levels in males were significantly lower when compared to the controls (p<0.001). In the alcohol+passive cigarette smoking group, only the chloride levels of males were significantly higher in comparison to the control group (p<0.001).

Keywords: Mice, male and female, alcohol, passive smoking, serum biochemistry

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