Maternal Exposure to Electronic Cigarettes Causes Body Composition Alterations in Pups

Abstract

Electronic cigarette (E‐cig) usage is promoted as a safe alternative to traditional smoking, even during pregnancy, but long‐term effects of vaping are still unknown. Maternal smoking during pregnancy has been well studied and shown to increase both body mass index and obesity within children later in life. However, the effects of vaping on the offspring of maternal E‐cig users remains poorly studied. We hypothesized that maternal vaping during pregnancy will also increase body mass and obesity in the mature offspring with E‐cig exposed rat dams.Pregnant Sprague Dawley dams were exposed to nicotine‐free E‐cig aerosol (E‐cig0), E‐cig aerosol containing 18 mg/ml of nicotine (E‐cig18), or ambient air (control). Maternal E‐cig exposure (Joyetech eGrip OLED using 5‐sec puff @ 17.5 W) consisted of 60 puffs over 1‐hour each day, 5 days/week, starting on gestational day 2 and continued until pups were weaned. Progeny themselves were never directly exposed to E‐cig aerosol. Dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) was used for body composition analysis in male and female rat offspring at 31±1 weeks of age (Air n=16, E‐cig0 n=21, E‐cig18 n=19).In females, total body mass and lean body mass (LBM) was not different between the exposure groups, however fat mass (FM) was greater in E‐cig0 compared to air and E‐cig18 exposed groups (125±9 vs. 103±12 and 100±5 g, respectively, ANOVA p<0.05). Percentage BF (%BF) was also greater in E‐cig0 compared to air and E‐cig18 (33±2 vs. 28±2 and 29±1 %, respectively, ANOVA p<0.05). As expected, total body mass, LBM, and FM values were significantly lower in females than males (ANOVA p<0.001), but no differences in body composition was observed within the males across the exposure groups.In conclusion, maternal vaping without nicotine may increase risk for elevated body fat in adult life and the development of obesity in female progeny with fetal exposure in utero.Support or Funding InformationWVU Cancer Institute Philip R Dino Innovative Research Grant (IMO), NIHGMS 5U54GM104942‐03 (PDC)