Virginia Research Day 2021

Student Research Biomedical

07 Two-Cell-To-Hatching-Blastocyst Development During E-cig Fluid Condensate Media Exposure

King Ampofo; Aubrey Ann Jackson; VicLouis Arreola; R James Swanson, PhD; Bo Liu, PhD Corresponding author: kampofo@liberty.edu

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine

Abstract: The emergence of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) as devices touted to be helpful in the cessation or reduction of smoking has prompted concerns about the prevalence and consequences of their use during pregnancy.1 Studies have shown that e-cigs, vaping, and hookah use are increasing among adolescents and young adults but the long- term health impacts on pregnancy are unknown. Women who smoke may be motivated to switch to vaping during pregnancy in seeking to alleviate known hazards of smoking.2 Use of e-cigs is rapidly increasing in popularity in the U.S. and around the world.3 Since vaping is marketed as a better alternative to smoking cigarettes, smoking women who are planning to get pregnant or have become pregnant may be more likely to consider using e-cigs in assisting in smoking cessation.4 Due to the paucity of literature on vaping effects on the embryo and pregnancy, both health practitioners and the public, especially pregnant women, are misinformed about the health risk associated with vaping.5 A successful pregnancy begins with healthy embryos. This study

References: 1) Jiang N, Lee L, Zelikoff, JT Weitzman. Ped Rev 2018, 39 156-158; 2) US Dept of Health & Human Services. s (2016); 3) Public Health Consequences of E-cigarettes. Nat Acad Sci Eng Med (2018); 4) McCubbin A, Fallin-Bennett A, Barnett J, Ashford K. Health Ed Res, 2017, 32 22-32; 5) Wang X, Lee NL, Burstyn I. 2016 US Nat Samp , 2020; 6) Mitchell MH, Swanson RJ, Hodgen GD, Oehninger S, J Soc Gyn Inv , 1994 1 215-9.

investigated the impact of e-cig fluid condensate on the developing embryo. Twenty mice were divided into 4 groups: 1) control; 2) mango flavored fluid with 0% nicotine; 3) mango flavored fluid with 2.5% nicotine; and 4) spearmint flavored fluid with 2.5% nicotine. The mice were injected to super ovulate with PMSG and hCG 6 and individually placed with one male mouse on day 4. Two-cell embryos were collected from vaginal plug-positive mice on day 6 and plated on four 96-well plates with M16 media. The stage of development for each embryo was recorded twice a day for four days. The results showed that there was a greater percentage of embryos in the control group (p≤0.0048) reaching blastocyst than any of the experimental groups. On both plates, none of the embryos in the 2.5 % mango with nicotine or 2.5 % spearmint with nicotine groups reached the 4-cell stage(p≤0.0001). This suggest there was a harmful effect of e-cig fluid condensate on embryo development post-fertilization until the hatching blastocyst stage.

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