The researchers from the Medical University of Bialystok (Sara Zięba, Agnieszka Błachnio-Zabielska, Mateusz Maciejczyk, Karolina Pogodzińska, Anna Zalewska) along with co-authors from other institutions published the article „Impact of Smoking on Salivary Lipid Profile and Oxidative Stress in Young Adults: A Comparative Analysis between Traditional Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes, and Heat-Not-Burn Products" in Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research.
The objective of the study was to examine the impact of smoking conventional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, and heated tobacco products on salivary lipid composition and lipid peroxidation products in healthy young adults who have smoked for a duration of up to three years.
The study involved 75 young adult smokers who were divided into three groups depending on the smoking method. They were compared with a control group of people of similar age and gender and condition of the oral cavity. Saliva collected from participants was analyzed to check the levels of sphingolipids, ceramides and lipid peroxidation products. The results indicated that smoking every one of these methods caused a decrease in the level of lipids in saliva, while increasing the level of two substances responsible for lipid peroxidation — MDA and 4-HNE. Smoking also reduced the concentration of sphingosine, sphinganine, sphingosine-1-phosphate and various ceramides in saliva, suggesting that it may disturb the natural lipid balance in the oral cavity by increasing oxidative stress and damaging cell membranes.
Due to the limited number of people participating in the study, the results should be treated with caution as preliminary findings. They do not reflect all the possible effects of smoking on oral health, especially in long-term smokers. Additionally, the study only focused on selected salivary lipids, so it did not capture the entire picture of the effects of smoking on salivary lipid composition. There were no comparisons between people smoking different amounts of tobacco.
Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.12659/MSM.942507
