TOBACCO-INDUCED METAL TOXICITY: ROLE OF VITAMINS

Soumita Dey, Amit Nandi, Sandip Kumar Sinha and Sankar Kumar Dey*

ABSTRACT

Recently, the main theme of world is urbanization as well as industrialization as a result; there has been a growing concern about increase in toxic metals contamination. Nicotine is one of the major constituents of different types of smoking and is the more toxic part also. Thirty metals have been detected in tobacco smoke, including nickel, arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead. Arsenic and arsenic compounds and chromium and some chromium compounds are causally associated with cancer in humans, while nickel and cadmium and their compounds are probably carcinogenic to humans. So, the present review is to summarize the current knowledge regarding the risks of tobacco consumption which contains several toxic metals. Vitamins consumption through food stuffs, act as an antioxidant. Antioxidants are substances which may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E and carotenoids, may help to protect cells from damage caused by free radicals. Several studies reported that metals-induced toxicity can be attributed to oxidative stress started from glutathione mediated metal reductive activation and continued by mitochondrial/lysosomal toxic interaction. Vitamins play a vital role to counteract such alterations in response to heavy metals.

Keywords: Heavy metals, oxidative stress, toxicity, vitamins.