The effect of secondhand smoking on the thymus and adrenal gland conditions of their offspring against the background of a mechanical wound

Abstract

The thymus and adrenal glands are especially important in childhood. The «thymus-adrenal glands» system ensures the child normal development, supports the immune reactivity and it is the stress-implementing system guide link of the body. However, a disorder of the smokers’ children adaptive capacity is elucidated in some scientific researches. The secondhand smoking is also dangerous for child’s body. The aim is to study the effect of different variants of the
parental secondhand smoking on the thymus and adrenal glands of their offspring against the background of a mechanical wound depending on the content of nicotine and tar in cigarettes. Materials and methods. The study was carried out on adult rats and their offspring. After fumigating adult rats, there were formed groups from the offspring of the rat cubs which were simulated different couples where one of the spouses smoked or smoked both: K24 (n=5),
K48 (n=5) — control (intact) group, PB24 (n=5), PB48 (n=6) — only the male was fumigated with filtered cigarettes; PMB24 (n=7), PMB48 (n=10) — both male and female were fumigated with filter cigarettes; VB24 (n=10), VB48 (n=9) — only the male was fumigated with cigarettes without a filter; VMB24 (n=10), VMB48 (n=15) — both male and female were fumigated with cigarettes without a filter. That is, experimental groups were formed that simulated different couples, where one of spouses smoked or smoked two. The adult rats were fumigated in a closed 27-liter chamber containing 5 rats for 15 minutes. Filter cigarettes containing 0.6 mg of nicotine and 12 mg of tar and unfiltered cigarettes containing 0.8 mg of nicotine and 15 mg of tar were used in the experiment. Thiocyanide K (cotinine) was determined in blood serum by the spectrophotometrical method. Female rat cubs were removed from the experiment 24 hours and 48 hours after applying a mechanical wound on the outer surface of the right hind limb. The width of the adrenal zona fasciculata was measured using
the microscope «LOMO» with an eyepiece micrometer «AM2-9». The number of spongiocytes was counted in the zona fasciculata. Spongiocytes and thymus epitheliocytes were calculated by the computer karyometry. The probability of differences was evaluated using the Student t-test at p<0.05. The results. A statistically significant increase in main metabolite of nicotine — cotinine — in the serum blood content, which is evidence of tobacco intoxication in rats,
was revealed compared to the control animal indicesh. The greatest morphofunctional changes in the thymus occurred in rat cubs 48 h after mechanical injury in the group where the male was exposed to chronic tobacco intoxication (group PB48) and 24 h after mechanical injury in the group where male and female (groups PMB24 and VMB24) were exposed to chronic tobacco intoxication. There was an increase in the relative thymus mass and the nuclei area of epitheliocytes in these groups. Adrenal hyperplasia of the zona fasciculata (groups PMB24 and PMB48), and decrease in spongiocyte proliferation (groups PB24, PB48, VB24, VMB24, VB48 and VMB48) were determined. The wound process in rat cub offspring was characterized by the presence of purulent inflammation with histolysis (group VB24), the development process of phlegmon (group PMB24), large necrotic changes and granulation tissue pathological development (group VMB48). Conclusion. The obtained data show that tobacco smoke has a complex effect on the thymus and adrenal glands in offspring
whose parents were fumigated for a long time, which as a result leads to impaired wound healing due to reduced reactivity.