Smoking, calcium, calcium antagonists, and aging

Aging is characterized, besides other changes, by a progressive increase in calcium content in the arterial wall, which is enhanced by diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, arterial hypertension, and tabagism. As to tabagism, experiments in animals have shown that nicotine can increase calcium content of the arterial wall, and clinical studies have demonstrated that cigarette smoking induces peripheral vasoconstriction, with consequent increase in blood pressure levels. In order to study the role of calcium ions in the pathogenesis of the vasoconstrictive lesions caused by "acute" smoking, the author has studied the peripheral vascular effects of the calcium-channel antagonist nifedipine, a dihydropyridine derivative, and calcitonin, a hypocalcemizing hormone which possess vasoactive actions on 12 elderly regular smokers (mean age 65.8 years). The results demonstrated that both nifedipine (10 mg sublingually 20 min before smoking) and salmon calcitonin (100 MRC U/daily intramuscularly for three days) are able to prevent peripheral vasoconstriction evaluated by Doppler velocimetry, as well as the increase of blood pressure induced by smoking. On the basis of our results, the author proposes that cigarette smoking-induced vasoconstriction is a calcium-mediated process, which can be hindered by drugs with calcium antagonist action.