Vaping Dose, Device Type, and E-Liquid Flavor are Determinants of DNA Damage in Electronic Cigarette Users
- PMID: 36780924
- PMCID: PMC10202635
- DOI: 10.1093/ntr/ntad003
Vaping Dose, Device Type, and E-Liquid Flavor are Determinants of DNA Damage in Electronic Cigarette Users
Abstract
Introduction: Despite the widespread use of electronic cigarettes, the long-term health consequences of vaping are largely unknown.
Aims and methods: We investigated the DNA-damaging effects of vaping as compared to smoking in healthy adults, including "exclusive" vapers (never smokers), cigarette smokers only, and nonusers, matched for age, gender, and race (N = 72). Following biochemical verification of vaping or smoking status, we quantified DNA damage in oral epithelial cells of our study subjects, using a long-amplicon quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay.
Results: We detected significantly increased levels of DNA damage in both vapers and smokers as compared to nonusers (p = .005 and p = .020, respectively). While the mean levels of DNA damage did not differ significantly between vapers and smokers (p = .522), damage levels increased dose-dependently, from light users to heavy users, in both vapers and smokers as compared to nonusers. Among vapers, pod users followed by mod users, and those who used sweet-, mint or menthol-, and fruit-flavored e-liquids, respectively, showed the highest levels of DNA damage. The nicotine content of e-liquid was not a predictor of DNA damage in vapers.
Conclusions: This is the first demonstration of a dose-dependent formation of DNA damage in vapers who had never smoked cigarettes. Our data support a role for product characteristics, specifically device type and e-liquid flavor, in the induction of DNA damage in vapers. Given the popularity of pod and mod devices and the preferability of sweet-, mint or menthol-, and fruit-flavored e-liquids by both adult- and youth vapers, our findings can have significant implications for public health and tobacco products regulation.
Implications: We demonstrate a dose-dependent formation of DNA damage in oral cells from vapers who had never smoked tobacco cigarettes as well as exclusive cigarette smokers. Device type and e-liquid flavor determine the extent of DNA damage detected in vapers. Users of pod devices followed by mod users, and those who use sweet-, mint or menthol-, and fruit-flavored e-liquids, respectively, show the highest levels of DNA damage when compared to nonusers. Given the popularity of pod and mod devices and the preferability of these same flavors of e-liquid by both adult- and youth vapers, our findings can have significant implications for public health and tobacco products regulation.
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Conflict of interest statement
Figures
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Comment in
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What e-cigarette factors determine oral epithelial DNA damage in consumers?Evid Based Dent. 2023 Dec;24(4):163-164. doi: 10.1038/s41432-023-00943-y. Epub 2023 Oct 12. Evid Based Dent. 2023. PMID: 37828109
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