Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY, USA.
Front Pharmacol. 2012 Nov 6;3:185. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2012.00185. eCollection 2012.
Cigarette smoking continues to be a major public health problem, and while smoking rates in men have shown some decrease over the last few decades, smoking rates among girls and young women are increasing. Practically all of the important aspects of cigarette smoking and many effects of nicotine are sexually dimorphic (reviewed by Pogun and Yararbas, 2009). Women become addicted more easily than men, while finding it harder to quit. Nicotine replacement appears to be less effective in women. This may be linked to the observation that women are more sensitive than men to non-nicotine cues or ingredients in cigarettes. The reasons for these sex differences are mostly unknown. Several lines of evidence suggest that many of the reported sex differences related to cigarette smoking may stem from the inhibitory effects of nicotine and other tobacco alkaloids on estrogen synthesis via the enzyme aromatase (cyp19a gene product). Aromatase is the last enzyme in estrogen biosynthesis, catalyzing the conversion of androgens to estrogens. This review provides a summary of experimental evidence supporting brain aromatase as a potential mediator and/or modulator of nicotine actions in the brain, contributing to sex differences in smoking behavior. Additional research on the interaction between tobacco smoke, nicotine, and aromatase may help devise new, sex specific methods for prevention and treatment of smoking addiction.
吸烟仍然是一个主要的公共卫生问题，尽管在过去几十年中男性的吸烟率有所下降，但女孩和年轻女性的吸烟率却在上升。实际上，吸烟的所有重要方面和尼古丁的许多影响都具有性别二态性（Pogun 和 Yararbas，2009 年综述）。女性比男性更容易上瘾，而戒烟则更困难。尼古丁替代似乎对女性的效果较差。这可能与女性对香烟中的非尼古丁线索或成分比男性更敏感有关。造成这些性别差异的原因大多未知。有几条证据表明，许多与吸烟有关的报告性别差异可能源于尼古丁和其他烟草生物碱通过芳香酶（cyp19a 基因产物）抑制雌激素合成的作用。芳香酶是雌激素生物合成的最后一种酶，催化雄激素转化为雌激素。这篇综述提供了支持脑芳香酶作为尼古丁在大脑中作用的潜在介质和/或调节剂的实验证据摘要，有助于解释吸烟行为中的性别差异。关于烟草烟雾、尼古丁和芳香酶之间相互作用的进一步研究可能有助于设计针对吸烟成瘾的新的、性别特异性的预防和治疗方法。
