• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.1102-1108
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• 1997

The purpose of this study was to find the extent of lipid peroxidation of erythrocytes in cigarette smokers, and to determine the relative effectiveness of $\beta$-carotene, canthaxanthin , and $\alpha$-tocopherol as antioxidants. Thirty smokers and 30 nonsmokers participated in this study . No significant differences according to age, sex, and height were shown. Cigarette smokers in this study had higher hemoglobin concentrations and more oxidation of hemoglobin than non-smokers. In addition, the erythrocytes of cigarette smokers had significantly higher MDA concentrations than crythrocytes of nonsmokers, which suggests that smokers may have tocopherol were studied in vitro by measuring the concentration of malondialdehyde(MDA) and precent hemolysis of erythrocytes. The addition of any antioxidant to erythrocytes significantly decreased MDA concentrations(p<0.05) while antioxidants showed nonsignificant inhibition of hemolysis. Among the antioxidant used in this study, canthaxanthin showed the greatest inhibition of both lipid peroxidationand hemolysis. Meanwhile, $\alpha$-tocopherol showed potent inhibition of lipid peroxidation, but not of hemolysis.