Staff Reporter
DEGENERATION of intervertebral discs, which results in low back pain, is more common among smokers and correlated with the duration of exposure to nicotine, an experimental study by researchers at Qatar University has revealed.
A presentation on the study was made at the first annual Qatar University Research Forum (QURF) yesterday by Nahla M Afifi (Health Sciences Department, College of Arts & Sciences).
The background for the research was the clinical observation that a large proportion of patients presenting with low back pain are smokers.
Intervertebral discs are the pillow-like cushions in the vertebrae. They are the spine’s shock-absorbing system, helping easy movement.
“We investigated the histological effects of nicotine on the lumbar intervertebral discs of a group of rabbits,” explained Afifi, who conducted the study in association with Kawther A Hafez (Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University).
In all, 18 rabbits, divided into three equal groups, were used in the experiment. While Group one was left untreated, the rabbits in groups two and three were injected with 5000ng/kg nicotine into the peritoneum, the serous membrane that forms the lining of the abdominal cavity, daily for four weeks and eight weeks, respectively.
“The selected dose produced blood nicotine levels equivalent to those found in heavy smokers who would use about 30 cigarettes a day,” the researcher said.
Light and electron microscope studies revealed that nicotine injection showed a variety of histological changes in the intervertebral discs of rabbits in groups two and three.