The effects of smoking on vascular endothelial growth factor and inflammation markers: A case-control study

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of obstructive lung disease characterized by long-term poor airflow. Tobacco smoking is the most common cause of COPD. In this study, we aimed to assess the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and inflammation markers on smokers and non-smoking individuals.

Our study was a case-control study and 175 individuals who want to give up smoking constituted the case group. As a control group, 175 individuals who never smoked.

The mean age of 350 participants was 35.83 ± 13.11 years. Educational status of the non-smokers was significantly higher than that of the smoking group (P < .001). When smoking and non-smoking groups were compared in terms of VEGF and interleukin-6 (IL-6), it was found that these values were statistically higher in smokers than non-smokers (P < .001). The levels of IL-10 were found to be higher in non-smokers than in smokers (P < .001). Although a moderate positive correlation was found between VEGF and IL-6 levels (r = .486, P < .001), there was a weak negative correlation between VEGF and IL-10 (r = -.210, P < .001). A weak negative correlation was found between IL-6 and IL-10 (r = -.185, P < .001).

In our study, IL-6 inflammatory marker and VEGF levels were found to be high and IL-10 anti-inflammatory marker was discovered to be low in smokers. For this reason, raising awareness in the society about the harms of smoking and encouraging people to give it up have become more challenging to counteract the inflammatory effects of smoking in human body and to prevent many smoking-related diseases.