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A Comparative In Vitro and In Vivo Toxicity Assessment of E-cigarette Aerosols Generated from Sub-ohm Tank and Juul
TIANCONG MA, Liqiao Li, Tian Xia, Yifang Zhu, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract Number: 263
Working Group: Health-Related Aerosols
Abstract
Electronic cigarette (e-cig) is a battery-powered nicotine delivery device that has been widely marketed as an alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes. However, considering the outbreak of the e-cig, or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI), various attractive flavors, and the constantly evolving e-cig devices, it is necessary to find out the links between e-cig devices, e-liquid components and their potential toxicity. In this study, we prepared e-cig aerosol samples by changing the number of puffs, e-liquid composition, and type of e-cig devices (sub-ohm tank and Juul), and collected samples through an impinger system for biological assays. We tested their effects on THP-1 macrophages, BEAS-2B bronchial epithelial cells, and NF-κB-luc transgenic mice. We found that e-cig samples are cytotoxic to THP-1 cells and BEAS-2B in vitro, leading to the production of inflammatory cytokines and cell death. Importantly, the aerosol produced by Juul (3.7 V) is more toxic in vitro than sub-ohm tank (7.5 V). For both sub-ohm tank or Juul, higher voltage increased aerosol toxicity. After exposing the e-cig aerosol samples to NF-κB-luc mice by oropharyngeal aspiration, the expression of NF-κB was observed by ex vivo imaging, suggesting activation of pro-inflammatory pathways. In addition, e-cig samples induced neutrophil infiltration and IL-1β production in the lung. These results indicate that differences between devices affect pro-inflammatory NF-κB pathway activation and cell death, which are related to e-cig-induced acute lung inflammation. More studies are needed to reveal the potential mechanism of toxicity induced by different devices.