title: Nicotine effect on cardiovascular system and ion channels.
abstract: Smoking is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Nicotine is one of the components of cigarette smoke. Nicotine effects on the cardiovascular system reflect the activity of the nicotine receptors centrally and on peripheral autonomic ganglia. It has been found that cigarette smoke extract-induced contraction of porcine coronary arteries is related to superoxide anion-mediated degradation of nitric oxide. Treatment of rabbit aortas with an oxygen free radicals scavenger attenuated cigarette smoke impairment of arterial relaxation. Treatment of smokers with vitamin C, an antioxidant, improved impaired endothelium-dependent reactivity of large peripheral arteries. Thus it appears that chronic smoking and acute exposure to cigarette smoke extract may alter endothelium-dependent reactivity via the production of oxygen derived free radicals. This review discusses the effects of nicotine on resistance arterioles, compliance arteries, smooth muscle cells, and ion channels in the cardiovascular system. We discuss studies performed on humans, nicotine-exposed animals, and cell cultures yielding varying and inconsistent results that may be due to differences in experimental design, species, and the dose of exposure. Nicotine exposure appears to induce a combination of free radical production, vascular wall adhesion, and a reduction of fibrinolytic activity in the plasma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. sth100@mail.usak.ca
authors.forename: Salma Toma
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Hanna
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001160:Arterioles / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000187:drug effects*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000187:drug effects; D007172:Erectile Dysfunction / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000502:physiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D020521:Stroke / Q000209:etiology; D013481:Superoxides / Q000378:metabolism; D014664:Vasodilation / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D007473:Ion Channels; D013481:Superoxides; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D009538:Nicotine