Human heart cells show stress response to tobacco smoke, but not to e-cig vapour

I just ran across this great article from the University of Bristol comparing the effects of cigarette smoke and ecig vapor on heart cells.  The study found that vapor from electronic cigarettes did not have the same negative effect on heart cells as cigarette smoke does.

The researchers created cigarette smoke extract from a conventional cigarette and electronic cigarette aerosol extract from an e-cigarette aerosol. Both were passed through a culture of the cells. The researchers then analysed the gene expression patterns of the heart cells to see if the cells exhibited a stress response to either the cigarette smoke or e-cigarette aerosol exposure.

Professor Marcus Munafò said: “We found the cells showed a stress response from the cigarette smoke extract, but not from the electronic cigarette aerosol extract. This result suggests tobacco smokers may be able to reduce immediate tobacco-related harm by switching from conventional cigarettes to e-cigarettes.”

Repost:http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2016/may/ecigarettes-tobacco-heart.html

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