Relationship between intensity of night shift work and antioxidant status in blood of nurses

Nov 27, 2012International archives of occupational and environmental health

How the amount of night shift work relates to blood antioxidant levels in nurses

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Nurses working rotating night shifts showed a higher red blood cell glutathione peroxidase activity (21.0 ± 4.6 U/g Hb) compared to day workers (20.0 ± 5.0 U/g Hb, p < 0.009).

Exposure to light at night may influence antioxidant enzyme activity in female shift workers.
Premenopausal nurses on night shifts had significantly lower levels of vitamins A (0.690 ± 0.238 μg/ml) and E (10.93 ± 4.15 μg/ml) compared to their day-working counterparts.
A marker of lipid peroxidation was significantly lower in premenopausal nurses than in postmenopausal nurses working day shifts.
Erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase activity increased significantly with the number of night shifts worked per month.
The findings suggest an association between light-at-night exposure and blood glutathione peroxidase activity in female nurses.

AI simplified

PURPOSE: Light-at-night exposure can disrupt the human circadian rhythm via clock gene expressions. The circadian rhythm influences antioxidant enzymes' activity and cellular mRNA levels of these enzymes. The employees working based on a shift system adjust to the changes occurring both on the cell level and on the level of the whole organism. Therefore, a question should be answered whether shift work disturbs oxidant-antioxidant balance and/or generates oxidative stress.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among nurses selected from the Local Registry of the Chamber of Nurses and Midwives in Lodz: 359 nurses worked daily only and 349 working rotating night shifts. These two groups differed significantly in respect of age (p < 0.0001), menopausal status (p < 0.0001), and current smoking habit (p = 0.02). The average total work duration was significantly shorter (12.4 years) in nurses working currently rotating night shifts who worked significantly longer on night shifts than day-workers (26.6 years).

RESULTS: We found statistically significant higher red blood cell glutathione peroxidase in nurses working on night shifts (21.0 ± 4.6 vs. 20.0 ± 5.0 U/g Hb, p < 0.009) after adjusting for age, oral contraceptive hormone use, smoking, and drinking alcohol during last 24 h. Statistically significant lower vitamin A and E levels were found in the premenopausal women working in rotating system (0.690 ± 0.238 vs. 0.786 ± 0.262 μg/ml, p < 0.0001 for vitamin A and 10.93 ± 4.15 vs. 12.78 ± 4.75 μg/ml, p < 0.0001 for vitamin E). The marker of lipid peroxidation (TBARS concentration) was significantly lower in the premenopausal nurses than postmenopausal ones working day shifts only (2.06 ± 0.76 vs. 2.21 ± 0.80 nmol/ml, p < 0.038). We observed that erythrocyte GSH-Px activity rose statistically significant in nurses working more night shifts per month (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: The results quoted above seem to support the existence of an association between light-at-night exposure and blood glutathione peroxidase activity in female shift workers. Nevertheless, in order to explain the mechanisms of this association, we need more studies.

Full Text

We can’t show the full text here under this license. Use the link below to read it at the source.

View full text ↗

Relationship between intensity of night shift work and antioxidant status in blood of nurses

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief