[The effect of passive smoking and alcohol on cardiomyocytes in rabbits]

The authors investigated the action of two weeks' simultaneous action of passive smoking (breathing the smoke of three cigarettes for 30 minutes twice a day) and alcohol (5 ml 20% ethanol per 1 kg body weight s.c. twice a day) on the vitality of isolated myocytes of the rabbit heart muscle. The vitality of cardiomyocytes was evaluated using morphological (microscopic examination of the shape of isolated cardiomyocytes) and metabolic criteria (oxygen uptake by isolated cardiomyocytes from the medium in different substrates--glutamate, pyruvate and succinate). The authors compare the assembled results with previous investigations of the isolated effect of smoking and alcohol at a cellular and subcellular level of the heart muscle. They reach the conclusion that during the simultaneous action of smoking and alcohol differentiated changes take place at the cardiomyocytic level, depending on the substrates used. They explain this finding by the possible interaction of nicotine and ethanol during their metabolism in the liver microsomes.