Abstract
Background Cigarette smoking, one of the main causes of avertible morbidity and mortality, has a multitude of well-known side effects. Cigarette smoking contains large amounts of reactive oxygen species that induce oxidative DNA damage and increase the incidence of chromosomal aberrations and thus increases the incidence of oncogenesis. Aim The aim of this work is to study the hematological effects of smoking and its ability to induce DNA damage and specific RUNX1-RUNX1T1 gene translocation. Patients and methods The hematological studies and measurement of plasma concentration of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHDG) (using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and RUNX1-RUNX1T1 translocation t(8;21) (using reverse transcription-PCR) were conducted on two groups of participants one smoking and the other is a nonsmoking control group. Results Smokers group showed a highly significant (P%0.001) increase in plasma 8-OHDG and with a significant correlation between 8-OHDG and hemoglobin concentrations. In addition, the incidence of translocation(8;21) was 8.3% in the smokers' group with obvious myelodysplasia of peripheral white blood cells was detected in 29.2% of smoking persons.