Elevations in serum copper, erythrocytic copper, and ceruloplasmin concentrations in smokers.

ABSTRACT

PIP: Levels of serum and erythrocytic copper and ceruloplasmin are compared among groups of smoking and nonsmoking individuals, some of whom have taken oral contraceptives 97 subjects were studied. 40 were healthy subjects who were nonsmokers, and 4 users of oral contraceptives, 25 smokers, and 4 nonsmoking pretreatment lymphoma patients, and 8 patients under treatment for lymphoma were also studied. There were elevations of serum copper and ceruloplasmin activity for all 5 groups. By Student's t test, there were elevations of serum copper, erythrocytic copper, and ceruloplasmin in all 4 groups compared with healthy nonsmoking subjects at least at the P.01 level,; it was P.05 for erythrocytic copper smokers. Significant correlations of linear relationship between serum copper and ceruloplasmin were noted for all populations except smokers. No correlation was apparent between duration of smoking, or frequency of usage and elevations of serum copper, erythrocytic copper, or ceruloplasmin.