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On October 8, a research team from the School OF Pharmacy of ZHONGSHAN University published a paper in the ARCHIVES OF TOXICOLOGY, the core journal of global toxicology, pointing out that at the same nicotine dose, e-cigarette sol is less harmful to the respiratory system than cigarette’s smoke. 

In recent years, the health effects of e-cigarettes and cigarettes have been hotly debated in the field of public health.  In this study, the ZHONGSHAN University research team compared the effects of cigarette and e-cigarette on lung function, inflammatory factors and protein expression in mice with the same nicotine content, which filled the scientific research gap in related fields. 

The researchers used RELX watermelon flavored e-cigarettes and traditional cigarette as samples, a total of 32 mice were randomly divided into 4 groups and exposed to clean air, low dose e-cigarette sol, high dose e-cigarette sol and cigarette smoke for 10 weeks, and their indexes were analyzed. 

The results of lung histopathology showed that the lung coefficient of mice exposed to cigarette significantly increased, and the morphology of trachea changed, suggesting that the respiratory system might be diseased.  For comparison, there was no significant change in lung coefficient and trachea morphology in mice exposed to e-cigarettes. 

Lung function tests showed that cigarette exposure caused significant abnormalities in a number of lung function indexes in mice, but only one index decreased in the e-cigarette group.  At the same time, pathological results showed that both cigarette and e-cigarette may cause lung abnormalities in mice, but the damage caused by cigarette was more obvious. 

Finally, the researcher also performed proteomic analysis of mouse lung tissue. The results showed that the differential protein changes caused by cigarette were more concentrated inflammation-related pathways, while the abnormal expression caused by e cigarette was less, and the effect on inflammatory signaling pathway was small.

The researchers say the results clearly show that exposure to larger inhaled doses of cigarettes and e cigarettes is harmful to the respiratory system. However, under the same nicotine, e-cigarette sol is less harmful to respiratory system than traditional cigarette’s smoke.

Vaping are widely seen by the medical community as a harmless alternative because they don’t produce tar and don’t need burn.