Age-Related Correlation Between Antioxidant Enzymes and DNA Damage With Smoking and Body Mass Index

To understand whether oxidants contribute to the initiation and/or promulgation toward aging, the present study has been undertaken on 220 healthy male volunteers aged 20–80 years selected from the defined electoral area (suburbs of Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India) to evaluate the concentrations of free radicals (superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide), lymphocyte antioxidant enzymes (glutathione S-transferase, superoxide dismutase, catalase), and DNA damage in relation to obesity and smoking (lifestyles). A two fold increase of lymphocyte free radical generation (DNA damage) was observed in older age groups with a reduced antioxidant potential, forming a link between cigarette smoking and oxidative stress represented by an antioxidant imbalance. Body mass index had a positive relationship with oxidative stress, but antioxidant levels did not vary with body mass index. The findings conclude that free radical–mediated oxidative stress and DNA damage accelerate with lifestyle variations under reduced antioxidant potential. Key Words: Aging—Antioxidants—DNA damage—Smoking—Obesity. THE oxidative stress hypothesis of aging (or the freeradical hypothesis as it was first proposed) is currently one of the most popular explanations of how aging occurs at the biochemical level (1). The basic tenet of the oxidativ