Little is known about the health risks to humans associated with smoking or vaping electronic cigarettes (EC). Based on the knowledge that the adverse effects of cigarette smoking are observed in the dysregulation of lung biology long before clinical abnormalities manifest, we assessed the hypothesis that acute exposure to EC vapors, with or without nicotine, modifies the biology of the lung of healthy never smokers. No significant changes in clinical parameters were observed following this brief exposure to EC vapors. However, marked changes were observed in the transcriptome of small airway epithelium and alveolar macrophage compared to baseline for both exposure groups with and without nicotine, and the group inhaling the nicotine containing vapors had elevated plasma endothelial microparticle levels. While additional studies are needed to ascertain long-term health risks of EC, this study provides preliminary in vivo data suggesting that EC vapors likely dysregulates normal human lung homeostasis, at least at the biologic level. SOURCE: Yael Strulovici-Barel (yas2003@med.cornell.edu) - Crystal Weill Cornell Medical College

Pluto Bioinformatics

GSE85121: Dysregulation of Lung Biology of Healthy Never Smokers Following Acute Inhalation of E-Cigarette Vapors