Relationship between Cadmium, Lead Concentration and Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylase (AHH) Activity in Placenta of Cigarette Smoking Pregnant Women

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the interrelationship between cadmium, lead and Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydoxylase (AHH) activities in placenta of smoking and non-smoking women. The study was carried out on 90 smokers, 70 passive smokers (exposed to cigarette smoke) and 30 non smokers as control group. Results showed that, AHH activity increased with increasing numbers of cigarettes smoked per day. In this context, AHH activity values in placental homogenate obtained from the women who smoked 25 cigarettes per day were 8.8 and 4.1 times greater than the non-smokers, and the women smoking 5 cigarettes per day
during pregnancy respectively. The statistical test of results was carried out utilizing paired and unpaired t-tests and Pearson correlation test was used for correlation analysis. Furthermore, Women who passively exposed to cigarette smoking had significantly (p < 0.01) higher AHH values 2.2 times than the controls. Similarly, the placental cadmium and lead levels increased considerably in smoking women compared with the control group. This study showed that there was a clear increase in placental Cd and Pb levels with increasing number of cigarette smoked per day. The results showed significant positive correlations between placental Cd – AHH activity (r = 0.866; p < 0.01) and Pb – AHH activity (r = 0.890; p < 0.01) in smokers. In addition, it has been shown that there was a significant positive correlation between placental Cd – AHH activity ( r = 0.818 ; p < 0.01 ) and Pb – AHH activity (r = 0.767 ; p < 0.01 ) in pregnant women passively exposed to cigarette smoke.