CJFST.2019.11.1.11

Original scientific paper                                                                                                                                                         DOI: 10.17508/CJFST.2019.11.1.11

Gender specific differences of the ethanol and nicotine toxicity verified by the use of mathematical models 

KRISTINA TUŠEK1, IVANA BUNTAK2, JASENKA GAJDOŠ KLJUSURIĆ2*, ANA JURINJAK TUŠEK2

1Institute of Emergency Medicine Krapina-Zagorje County, Mirka Crkvenca 1, 49000 Krapina, Croatia
2University of Zagreb, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, Pierottijeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received: April 17, 2018
Accepted: May 4, 2019
Beside the pandemic of obesity, the binge drinking becomes a huge problem. The toxicity of consuming alcohol and smoking in the late adolescent population was examined using mathematical models. The body was divided into compartments for two different models; (i) the ethanol model (4 compartments: central compartment, muscle and fat compartment, liver compartment and gastrointestinal compartment) and (ii) the nicotine model (2 compartments: liver compartment and central compartment). Different alcohol contents simulated consumptions of 90 mL of spirits; 900 mL of beer or 600 mL of wine. Nicotine metabolism simulation was performed for three different initial doses of nicotine (light, medium and strong cigarettes). Significant differences are observed regarding the gender; where the maximum ethanol concentration is reached at 0.5 h (males: 27 mmol/dm3 and females: 33 mmol/dm3) in the gastrointestinal compartment while complete nicotine degradation in the liver takes approximately 10 h and in the central compartment 15 h, respectively. The skewness and kurtosis of the toxin concentrations showed their relation with the symmetry of the toxin retention in the body. Results show preferable positively skewed distribution which implies a shorter retention time in the organism while higher kurtosis implies higher toxin concentration.
Keywords:
toxic effect
alcohol model
nicotine model
in vitro mathematical modelling
gender