Tobacco Snuff Induced Organ Weight Changes

Smokeless tobacco comes in two different forms, which are ‘tobacco snuff’ and ‘chewing tobacco’. Tobacco snuff is the powdered form blended with potash as the main additive in Nigeria. This eight-week study was designed to investigate the effect of tobacco snuff consumption on organ weight. A total of (42) Adult Wistar rats weighing 150-300g were involved. They were divided into four groups; group A serving as control, while groups B, C and D served as the test groups. The test groups were further divided into four groups (B1, C1, D1; B2, C2, D2; B3, C3, D3; and B4, C4, D4) representing four experimental phases/duration of 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks respectively. The rats were fed with varying doses of tobacco snuff and at the end of every 2 weeks; three randomly selected rats were prepared for organ harvest followed by organ weight measurement. The results showed statistically significant organ weight changes throughout the study. Heart, liver, lungs, spleen, small intestine, right and left kidney and right and left testis all presented organ weight loss when test groups were compared with the control. Brian showed both increase and decrease weight changes that were duration dependent when test groups were compared with the control (1.83 ± 0.18) throughout the study. Based on the existing facts, our findings support the assertion that smokeless tobacco is not safe and has the capabilities of inducing intracellular damages due to its innate and acquired deleterious effects.