A Japanese cross-sectional multicentre study of biomarkers associated with cardiovascular disease in smokers and non-smokers

Abstract

We performed a cross-sectional, multicentre study in Japan to detect the differences in biomarkers of exposure and cardiovascular biomarkers between smokers and non-smokers. Several clinically relevant cardiovascular biomarkers differed significantly between smokers and non-smokers, including lipid metabolism (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations – lower in smokers), inflammation (fibrinogen and white blood cell count – both higher in smokers), oxidative stress (8-epi-prostaglandin F_2α – higher in smokers) and platelet activation (11-dehydro-thromboxane B₂ – higher in smokers) (p ≤ 0.0001). These results provide further evidence showing that cardiovascular biomarkers can discriminate smokers from non-smokers, and could be used to evaluate the risks associated with tobacco products.

• Biomarkers
• cardiovascular disease
• cigarettes
• Japan
• smoking

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all participating investigators and staff at CMIC Co. Ltd., for data management and monitoring services. We are also very grateful to the following Philip Morris staff for their contribution to this work: Elisabeth Wenzel, Mark Bentley and Katrin Wieland for biomarker analysis and Dr Michael Peck for editorial support. We would also like to thank Dr Gareth Thomas and Dr Nicholas Smith of Edanz Group Ltd., for providing editorial support, which was funded by Philip Morris Products S.A.

Declaration of interest

The authors are employees of Philip Morris Products S.A.