Involvement of hydrogen and lipid peroxides in acute tobacco smoking-induced platelet hyperactivity

Previous studies have established that cigarette smoking results in acute platelet hyperaggregability. We investigated whether changes in plasma oxidative properties could occur after smoking and whether such changes could be responsible for this enhanced platelet activity. In the present work, we report that platelets from nonsmokers become hyperactive after incubation with plasma prepared from blood of smokers obtained 10 min after smoking. This effect was not observed with presmoking plasma and could be inhibited in vitro by adding either catalase or reduced glutathione plus peroxidase to plasma or 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol (BHT) to platelets before incubation. Comparison of pre- and postsmoking plasma showed that smoking resulted in a decrease in vitamin E (18%, P