Such immmunoregulatory abnormalities may contribute to disturbances of pulmonary defense mechanisms manifested by the predisposition to malignancy and infection. Our data suggest that these lymphocytic subpopulation alterations do not occur with marijuana use or are too small to be detected within our sample size. The information currently available allows only speculative explanations for differences in […]
Table 4 displays the mean percentages and concentrations of PB lymphocytic phenotypes in the four study groups. The percentage of PB CD4 cells and the PB CD4:CD8 ratio (Fig 1) were significantly higher in MS and MTS compared with NS and TS. Marijuana, but not tobacco use, had a significant effect in increasing the percentage […]
Although TS and MTS had high concentrations of bronchoalveolar neutrophils, only the comparison between TS and MS was significant. There was a significant effect of both tobacco and marijuana use toward higher AM concentrations (two-way ANCOVA). Tobacco use also had a significant effect of increased concentrations of bronchoalveolar lymphocytes and neutrophils. There were no grossly […]
Because most of the outcome variables were not normally distributed, the data were log transformed before analysis. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to investigate the differences in cell percentages and concentrations among the subject groups, with sex and age as covariates. One-way ANCOVA was used to compare all smoking categories (NS, TS, MS, and […]
The cells recovered by BAL were washed and resuspended in RPMI-1640 medium (Grand Island Biological Co, Grand Island, NY) containing 5 percent fetal calf serum. An aliquot was taken for the following: (1) a hemocytometer count of the total number of cells recovered; (2) determination of cell viability by trypan blue exclusion; and (3) cytocentrifuge […]
Healthy adult volunteers aged 25 to 50 years were recruited by public notices and newspaper advertisements. Eligibility of potential subjects who responded was determined using a standard screening questionnaire. Entry criteria included the following: (1) white; (2) either no marijuana use in the previous 3 years or current heavy, habitual marijuana use (a history of […]
An abundance of epidemiologic and physiologic data have defined the consequences of tobacco smoking on lung health. Besides being the major determinant in the development of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tobacco use appears to increase the susceptibility to and severity of respiratory tract infections. Disorders caused by tobacco use may be the […]