Association between Cigarette Smoking and Serum Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase Level

Abstract

Abstract Background: Gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) is an en- zyme mainly produced from the cells of the hepatobiliary tract. And, it has been introduced as a biomarker for ox- idative stress mainly by alcohol consumption and current smoking. This study was performed to evaluate the associa- tion between smoking status and serum GGT concentration. Methods: The effect of cigarette smoking on serum activ- ities of the enzyme, GGT was investigated using the data of the 5th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (5th KNHANES, 2010 to 2012); a cross sectional sur- vey in the general population of Korea. Results: The author analyzed 11,849 subjects (age ≧ 19 years) who had the data about smoking status and serum GGT levels. Subjects comprised 4,881 subjects who are cig- arette smokers and 6,968 who do not smoke, which serves as control. The mean ± standard deviation (S.D) of serum GGT levels in non-smokers, current and former smokers were 23.18 ± 24.03U/L, 52.69 ± 73.21U/L 41.63 ± 58.48 U/L and respectively, showing a significant increase in serum level of GGT (P < 0.001) in smokers when compared with controls. GGT levels showed a significant positive correla- tion with amount of smoking (r = 0.249, P < 0.001). Cigarette smoking produced a significant increase in GGT activity ir- respective of low to moderate alcohol consumption in the multivariate regression analyses. Conclusion: Former smoking as well as current smoking can be related to the elevation of serum GGT concentration. And, the amount of smoking has a significant relation with serum GGT concentration irrespective of alcohol consump- tion. Former smoking with the amount of smoking should be taken into account when assessing the significance of GGT activities. Keywords Cigarette smoking, Former smoking, Amount of smoking, Serum Gamma-glutamyl transferase