Nicotine Effects on Enzymatic Antioxidant Defenses In Human Breast and Ovarian Cell Lines

Introduction: nowadays, the prevalence of nicotine abuse among women has increased dramatically. in the current study, we aimed to investigate the effect of nicotine exposure on breast mcf-7 and ovarian ovcar-3 cell lines for assessing the toxicity of nicotine in the cells of these organs. methods: the mcf-7 and ovcar-3 cells were treated with increasing nicotine concentrations ranging from 0 (control), 10-11, 10^-8 and 10^-6 m for 24h. effect of nicotine treatments on major antioxidant enzymes catalase (cat), glutathione peroxidase (gpx), glutathione reductase (gr), cellular levels of glutathione (gsh) and malondialdehyde (mda) were monitored. results: we showed that the cat activity in mcf-7 cells increased only at 10^-6 m dose of nicotine. the gpx and gr activity was decreased at 10^-8 and 10^-6 m of nicotine in mcf-7 cells, but in ovcar-3 cells, this decrease was significant only at 10^-6 m dose of nicotine. reduced gsh decrease was statistically significant only at 10^-8 and 10^-6 m of nicotine in mcf-7 cells; otherwise, in ovcar-3 cells, this decline was significant only at 10^-6 m of nicotine. nicotine at 10^-8 and 10^-6 m concentration caused a significant increase in mda levels in mcf-7 cells. conclusion: this study showed that breast mcf-7 cells are more vulnerable than ovarian ovcar-3 cells against nicotine-induced oxidative toxicity.