Table 1. Characteristics of the individuals involved in the measurement of DNA damage by Comet Assay IV and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.
| Characteristic | Non-smoking controls (n = 7) | Non-obstructive smokers (n = 4) | Mild COPD(n = 3) | Moderate COPD (n = 7) | Severe COPD(n = 5) | Very severeCOPD (n = 4) | COPD exacerbation (n = 6) | p-value* |
| Age | 63.3±2.4 | 54.7±5.5 | 62.1±9.9 | 60.6±3.0 | 67.7±5.9 | 59.8±5.5 | 73.4±3.0 | 0.16 |
| Male | 7 (100.0%) | 4 (100.0%) | 3 (100.0%) | 6 (85.7%) | 5 (100.0%) | 4 (100.0%) | 5 (83.3%) | 0.71 |
| BMI | 32.2±2.1 | 28.4±2.7 | 24.9±1.3 | 24.9±1.9 | 23.7±1.4 | 29.7±2.1 | 22.6±0.8 | 0.017 |
| Smoking (pack-years) | - | 28.4±9.3 | 30.7±4.7 | 34.2±6.0 | 30.8±5.5 | 30.1±8.9 | 53.5±13.6 | 0.64 |
| Current smoker | - | 4 (100.0%) | 2 (66.7%) | 6 (85.7%) | 0 (0%) | 2 (50.0%) | 4 (66.7%) | 0.027 |
| Ex-smoker | - | 0 (0.0%) | 1 (33.3%) | 1 (14.3%) | 5 (100.0%) | 2 (50.0%) | 2 (33.3%) | 0.027 |
| FEV1, % of predicted | 95.9±4.7 | 99.5±7.0 | 84.0±2.5 | 68.7±3.1 | 35.0±3.7 | 24.8±2.5 | 30.2±5.6 | <0.001 |
Data are presented as mean ± SEM or n (%). *To test the equality of the data across the study groups, Kruskal-Wallis test and Pearson’s chi-square test was applied for numeric and nominal variables, respectively; in case of smoking-related variables, non-smoking controls were omitted from the analysis.