Jpn. J. Pharmacol. 82 (1), 78-81 (2000)

PeroxynitriteﾐGenerating Species: Good Candidate Oxidants
in Aqueous Extracts of Cigarette Smoke

Yu Yamaguchi¹, Satomi Kagota¹, Jun Haginaka² and Masaru Kunitomo<sup>1


1</sup>Department of Pharmacology and ²Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Mukogawa Women's University, 11ﾐ68, Koshien Kyubanﾐcho, Nishinomiya 663ﾐ8179, Japan

Abstract: Cigarette smoking is a wellﾐknown risk factor for atherosclerosis, but the mechanism of the adverse biological effect of smoking remains to be established. Cigarette smoke contains high concentrations of free radicals and oxidants. We show here that cigarette smoke extracts (CSE), prepared by bubbling the gas phase of smoke into phosphateﾐbuffered saline, could convert tyrosine to 3ﾐnitrotyrosine. The tyrosine nitration terminated 6 h after incubating tyrosine with CSE at 37｡C. These results indicate that the active oxidants in CSE are peroxynitriteﾐgenerating species like 3ﾐmorpholinosydnonimine (SINﾐ1), suggesting that they modify plasma lipoproteins and contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

Keywords: Cigarette smoke, Peroxynitrite, 3ﾐMorpholinosydnonimine (SINﾐ1)