Does vaping with nicotine alter microcirculatory function, arterial stiffness, hemodynamic parameters, and oxidative stress compared to vaping without nicotine or sham vaping in tobacco smokers?
The adverse acute cardiovascular and oxidative stress effects of e-cigarettes are attributable to nicotine rather than the vaporization of vehicles like propylene glycol and glycerol.
Abstract Propylene glycol and glycerol are electronic cigarettes vehicles allowing liquid vaporization and nicotine transport. The respective effects of these different constituents on the cardiovascular system are unknown. We assessed the differential effects of vehicles (propylene glycol and glycerol) and nicotine on microcirculatory function, arterial stiffness, hemodynamic parameters and oxidative stress. Twenty-five tobacco smokers were exposed to vaping with and without nicotine, and sham vaping, in a randomized, single blind, 3-period crossover design study. Neither sham-vaping nor vaping in the absence of nicotine resulted in modifications of cardiovascular parameters or oxidative stress. In contrast, vaping with nicotine: 1) impaired acetylcholine mediated vasodilation (mean ± standard error mean) (area under curve, perfusion unit (PU), 3385 ± 27PU to 2271 ± 27PU, p < 0.0001 ); 2) increased indices of arterial stiffness, namely augmentation index corrected for heart rhythm (−3.5 ± 1.5% to 1.9 ± 2.3%; p = 0.013 ) and pulse wave velocity (4.9 ± 0.1 m.s −1 to 5.3 ± 0 .1 m.s −1 ; p < 0.0001 ); 3) increased systolic and diastolic blood pressures as well as heart rate (all p < 0.0001 ) and finally; 4) raised plasma myeloperoxidase (median interquartile range) (13.6 ng.ml −1 10–17.7 to 18.9 ng.ml −1 12.2–54.4, p = 0.005 ). Our findings demonstrated that high temperature e-cigarette vehicle vaporization does not alter micro- and macro-vascular function, and oxidative stress, and that these effects are solely attributable to nicotine.
Chaumont et al. (2018) studied this question.