The effect of physical activity, smoking and hereditary factors on blood gas transport characteristics in young people

Aim. The paper aims to identify the effect of external factors, such as the level of motor activity (MA), smoking and hereditary predisposition (using the ACE I/D polymorphism (rs4646994)), on blood gas transport characteristics in young males. Materials and methods. The study involved 95 male smokers and non-smokers with different physical status aged 20.43 ± 1.99 years. The following parameters of blood gas transport were examined: partial oxygen pressure (pO2), partial carbon dioxide pressure (pCO2), oxygen saturation (satO2), oxy- (O2Hb), carboxy- (COHb) and methemoglobin (MetHB) levels, pH, O2 tension at 50% desaturation (p50). Blood erythrocytes were monitored with respect to their quantitative, qualitative and corpuscular characteristics. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to identify the effect of separate and combined factors on blood gas transport characteristics. Results. The ACE I/D polymorphism (rs4646994) affected p50 values (p = 0.004); motor activity - erythrocyte (p = 0.022) and pO2 (p = 0.007) levels; smoking - the average concentration of erythrocyte hemoglobin (p = 0.005), pO2 (p = 0.007), O2Hb (p = 0.00009), COHb (p = 0.0002) and p50 (p = 0.0008). The combined effect of ACE * MA was found for pO2 (p = 0.001); ACE * Smoking - for MetHB (p = 0.035); MA * Smoking - for pO2 (p = 0.003), satO2 (p = 0.001) and O2Hb (p = 0.002). Conclusion. Smoking had the greatest effect, both single and combined with MA, on blood gas transport characteristics. When it comes to the combined effect, these factors influenced blood (pO2) and hemoglobin (satO2, O2Hb) oxygenation. As for the effect of the ACE I/D polymorphism (rs4646994), adaptation mechanisms are implemented at the molecular level (p50 and MetHb).