Cigarette Smoking Increases Monocyte Adherence to Cultured Endothelial Cell Monolayer

Leukocyte adherence to endothelium represents one of the early responses to injury. Although the underlying mechanisms of atherosclerosis and intimal hyperplasia remain unclear, monocytes/macrophages are associated with this phenomenon. Since cigarette smoking has been identified as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, we examined the effects of chronic cigarette smoking on human leukocyte adherence (monocytes, lymphocytes, and neutrophils) to cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC's) in vitro. Among the cells, the basal adherence of monocytes only was significantly elevated in the smoking group (p < 0.05) compared to the non-smokers. Furthermore, the increase is related to increasing pack per day consumption (p < 0.01). These novel data suggest an alteration of the circulating monocytes by cigarette smoking, resulting in increased adherence to endothelial cells.