The Inflammatory Response to Cigarette Smoking Versus Inhaled Opium in the Liver: An Experimental Study

Background: Although opium is frequently used for the synthesis of applied medications, its deleterious effects on vital organs and biomarkers have been reported. Objectives: The present study came to address the degree of liver inflammation following inhaled opium use and compare it with the severity of liver inflammation in the animal group receiving cigarette smoking. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, 40 Syrian golden hamsters were randomly divided into five groups as group not receiving any regimen as the control, A: group receiving inhaled opium, B: group receiving cigarette smoke, C: group receiving inhaled opium with double dosage of the second group, D: group receiving inhaled opium and cigarette smoke concurrently. The degree of inflammation was evaluated by various scoring systems including Knodell/original HAI score, Ishak/modified HAI score, METAVIR score and two other ordinal inflammatory scoring approaches. Results: Histological interpretation of the liver samples showed similar mean Knodell/original HAI score, Ishak/modified HAI score, and METAVIR score across the five groups. According to other two ordinal methods for scoring inflammation, there were also no significant differences in the degree of inflammation activity across the interventional groups and the control. Conclusions: The inflammatory response to cigarette smoking seems to be similar to the use of inhaled opium; however, similarity of the inflammation degree between inhaled opium users and control experiments should be taken into consideration.