Flowchart diagram summarizing the methodology. Credit: Journal of the American Heart Association (2024).

Electronic cigarette or e-cigarette “vaping” has gained popularity, both among smokers as a purported aid to quit smoking tobacco-related products all together, but also especially among adolescents and teenagers. Vaping is considered “safer” than smoking, but growing evidence points to its significant role in cardiovascular problems.

A new study, co-led by researchers from the Air Pollution Health Effects Laboratory (APHEL) at the UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, reveals that vaping can interfere with the normal coupling between blood flow and pressure as blood flows from the heart to the arteries.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, contribute to the evidence that vaping is another environmental factor that can contribute to heart disease, one of the leading causes of death worldwide.

Past research has shown that exposure to inhaled ambient particles, especially PM2.5, and those produced from vaping have been linked to increased risks of heart attacks, arrhythmias, and hypertension. However, our understanding of the specific mechanisms by which pollutants affect cardiovascular function remains incomplete, thus impeding progress on developing interventions to protect human health and well-being.

To address this gap, environmental health researchers at UC Irvine have collaborated with peers at the University of Southern California and the Huntington Medical Research Institutes in Pasadena to conduct this study.

All exposure experiments were conducted at UC Irvine’s APHEL, a state-of-the-art research lab known for its advanced capabilities in simulating realistic environmental exposures. Under the leadership of APHEL’s co-director, Michael Kleinman, Ph.D., adjunct professor of environmental & occupational health at Wen Public Health, the research team used a controlled environment system to expose animal models to electronic cigarette vapor with and without nicotine.

Using a novel, non-invasive method, which could, in the future, be obtained using a cell phone, the team was able to show that vaping e-cigarettes with nicotine significantly disrupted normal heart function. These results provide compelling evidence that using e-cigarettes, and possibly other nicotine inhalation delivery systems could pose a risk to heart health.

“Our results support the growing call for public health policies aimed at reducing exposure to inhaled nicotine and to new synthetic nicotine products not yet on the market,” shares Kleinman, co-author of the study. “APHEL hopes to further unravel the connection between inhaled environmental toxins and heart disease, contributing to safer, healthier communities.”