Immunological Deficiency Associated With Cigarette Smoke Inhalation by Mice

Abstract

Inhalation of cigarette whole smoke (CWS) or its vapor phase (CVP) significantly impaired immune response capability in mice. Significant immunosuppressive effects on the humoral antibody response to a single antigenic stimulus were evident in animals exposed to smoke for seven days before or two days after administration of antigen. Impairment of the immunological response capability appeared to be temporary, with recovery about 14 days after exposure. Different lengths of exposure prior to antigenic stimulation neither produced an additive impairment of the immunological response nor rendered the experimental animals more tolerant to CWS or CVP. The immunological deficiency was specific to CWS and CVP inhalation rather than to nonspecific debilitating stress factors. The inductive phase was the period of the primary and secondary immune response most sensitive to impairment by exposure to CWS or CVP.