Smoking and high plasma triglyceride levels as risk factors for oxidative DNA damage in the Korean population.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of factors including dietary habits, lifestyle, anthropometric characteristics, plasma lipid profiles, and antioxidants on DNA damage among the Korean population.


METHODS
Blood samples were collected from 109 healthy Korean volunteers, aged 19-28 years, of whom 34% were smokers. Epidemiological information was collected by personal interviews, and anthropometric characteristics were measured directly. Oxidative DNA damage was quantified using the Comet assay; tail length (TL) and tail moment (TM) were measured.


RESULTS
Statistically significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations were observed between DNA damage (TM or TL) and smoking habits expressed as cigarettes smoked per day and number of packs smoked over time (r = 0.332 and 0.370, respectively, for TM; r = 0.266 and 0.304 for TL, respectively). There were also significant and positive correlations between DNA damage parameters and waist-hip ratio (r = 0.352 for TM and r = 0.226 for TL), but this significance disappeared after data were adjusted to account for smoking effects. Higher plasma triglyceride levels were associated with increased damage to DNA (r = 0.234 for TM and r = 0.271 for TL).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that cigarette smoking and high plasma triglyceride levels significantly increase DNA damage to peripheral lymphocytes in a sample of Koreans.
Park
Eunju
E
Divison of Life Sciences, Kyungnam University, Masan, Korea.
Kang
Myung-Hee
MH
D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D001824:Body Constitution / Q000502:physiology; D020552:Comet Assay; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007723:Korea; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000097:blood; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood*
D014280:Triglycerides