E-cigarettes can cause long-term lung damage

The electronic cigarettes can cause cellular and molecular changes in the lungsaccording to a study carried out on mice by Canadian scientists, who warn that these products are not inert.

A team at McGill University in Montreal found that even low exposure to aerosols from one brand of e-cigarettes “very popular with youth and young adults”, I had “significant effects”.

Prolonged inhalation of e-cigarette aerosols by mice caused changes in the composition of the animals’ lung immune cells and altered the levels of genes and proteins in the lungs, indicates the research published in The FASEB Journal.

Being a relatively new product, it may take decades to fully understand the effects of vaping on people, but this study shows that it causes “widespread changes inside the lungs”according to study coordinator Carolyn Bagloe.

The data obtained with the investigation “They further highlight that these products are not inert and can cause lung damage if used long term”he added.

The team investigated the impact of low-level, chronic exposure to aerosol from the JUUL brand of e-cigarettes in mice.

The mice, between 8 and 12 weeks of age, were exposed daily for a month to room air with commercially available brand of products containing 59 milligrams per milliliter of nicotine.

After the exposure period, inflammatory markers were assessed and proteomic (study of proteins) and transcriptomic (study of RNA molecules in a cell) analyzes were performed on isolated lung lavage samples.

Mice exposed to e-cigarette aerosols exhibited a “significant increase” of neutrophil and lymphocyte populations in lung lavage and “some changes” on the expression of cytokine mRNA.

The different analyzes also showed “significant changes” in numerous biological pathways, including neutrophil degranulation and xenobiotic metabolism.

(With information from EFE)