Electronic
cigarette (e-cigarette) use has grown substantially since inception,
particularly among adolescents and combustible tobacco users. Several
cigarette smoke constituents with known neurovascular effect are present
in e-cigarette liquids or formed during the vapor generation. The
present study establishes inhaled models of cigarette and e-cigarette
use with normalized nicotine delivery, then characterizes the impact on
blood-brain barrier function. Sequencing of microvessel RNA following
exposure revealed downregulation of several genes with critical roles in
BBB function. Reduced protein expression of Occludin and Glut1 is also
observed at the tight junction in all groups following exposure.
Pro-inflammatory changes in leukocyte-endothelial cell interaction are
also noted, and mice exposed to nicotine-free e-cigarettes have impaired
novel object recognition performance. On this basis, it is concluded
that long term e-cigarette use may adversely impact neurovascular
health. The observed effects are noted to be partly independent of
nicotine content and nicotine may even serve to moderate the effects of
non-nicotinic components on the blood-brain barrier.
No comments:
Post a Comment