Abstract

Nicotine is the more abundant component in cigarette smoking. The natural diet contains a variety of compounds, such as green tea that exhibit protective effects towards different toxicities. Nicotine is firstly metabolized in liver, and the lung is the main target organ susceptible to smoking; so, this study was aimed to investigate the effects of nicotine on this organs using histopathological and morphometrical methods and study the protective effect of green tea against toxicity of nicotine. Four groups of the male Swiss albino mice were used: untreated control group; nicotine–treated group (2.5 mg/kg/day); green tea-treated group (40 mg/kg./day); and nicotine and green tea intraperitoneally treated group for 28 days. The histological examinations of this study revealed a damage and degeneration in the lung and liver tissues of the nicotine treated animals. Green tea administration to nicotine-treated mice showed reduction in the tissues damage associated with the nicotine administration. Green tea administration to nicotine-treated mice ameliorated the increase in the size of nucleus of liver and restored the normal distribution of elastic fibers in lung. These results, along with previous observations, suggest that green tea may be useful in combating tissue injury that is a result of nicotine toxicity. Hence, the intake of green tea might suppress the toxicity and mutagenic activity of nicotine.

Key words: Nicotine, green tea, cigarette smoking, toxicity, apoptosis.