279 Cigarette smoke is a pro-oxidant in pregnant women regardless of antioxidant nutrient intake. Rat alveolar macrophages challenged by cigarette smoke release nitric oxide and superoxides, which interact with each other to produce peroxynitrite. Ethane and pentane are volatile alkanes produced from peroxidation of omega-3 fatty acids, and the breath levels of those compounds are used as indicators of oxidant stress. The breath ethane levels are higher in smokers than in nonsmokers. The intake of antioxidants such as vitamin C and E in RDA amounts does not reduce breath ethane levels.
Smoking has well-established procoagulant and coronary vasoconstrictive effects.
281-284 As discussed earlier, factors directly fan the oxidative coagulative fires within the circulating blood. Cigarette smoke generates an enormous number of free radicals and markedly increases plasma oxidizability. As indicated earlier, both active and passive smoking impair endothelium-dependent arterial dilatation in healthy adults. Penn et at. reported a dose-dependent size increases of aortic lesions following exposure to 7,12 dimethylbenzene. We anticipated, and verified by direct microscopic observations, the ability of tobacco smoke to inflict direct plasma and cell membrane injury.