Effect of smoking on serum immunoglobulins and cellular blood constituents in healthy individuals.

The purpose of this paper was to study a possible link between smoking and systemic immunological abnormalities, which could have been eventually the common ground for chronic degenerative processes Blood samples were taken from 319 apparently healthy men from 19-45 years of age. Mean values of hemoglobin were slightly higher in smokers than in nonsmokers but the difference appeared to have been insignificant. In contrast, the erythrocyte counts in nonsmokers were significantly higher. Although all types of white cells were in larger numbers among smokers only neutrophilic granulocytes and lymphocytes were substantially higher than in the group of nonsmokers. In nonsmokers mean value of IgG and IgA were about 10% higher than in smokers. The same pattern was observed for serum globulin alpha 2. The clear dose-response relationship was observed for neutrophilic granulocytes, erythrocyte counts and IgG level.