{"doi":"10.1113/jp290093","title":"<i>In utero</i> electronic cigarette exposure may have mind blowing impacts on the offspring","abstract":"We commend Mills and colleagues (Mills et al., 2025) for their salient study on the effects of maternal electronic cigarette (e-cig) use during pregnancy, on cerebrovascular and neurocognitive health of offspring during their adult lives both in the presence and absence of nicotine. They tested the hypothesis that maternal vaping in a rat model would adversely affect cerebrovascular functions. These effects would be independent of nicotine and observed at different wattages. After confirming pregnancy, the authors randomly assigned Sprague–Dawley rat dams to five exposure categories: (a) e-cig with 0 mg/mL nicotine at 5 W, (b) e-cig with 0 mg/mL nicotine at 30 W, (c) e-cig with 50 mg/mL nicotine at 5 W, (d) e-cig with 50 mg/mL nicotine at 30 W, and (e) ambient air, which served as the control group. The 5 W and 30 W options were selected for human relevance as the former is similar to the power level operated by pod-style device users, while the latter would be for experienced users operating mod-tank styles. The team observed that long-term cerebrovascular dysfunction persisted throughout the lifetime of an in utero exposed offspring and that the higher wattage was associated with worse endothelial cell dysfunction, while the presence of nicotine was associated with cognitive impairment. Lastly, e-cig exposures in utero were associated with the differential gene and protein expression that can subsequently lead to accelerated cellular senescence and the risk for neurodegenerative diseases. This study marks a leap forward in the understanding of how nicotine may contribute to a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders. Although nicotine may not always be associated with the aetiology of cerebrovascular impairment, its presence contributed to neurocognitive deficits and the severity of neuronal damage in the aforementioned study. Offspring who experienced e-cig exposure during pregnancy, regardless of the wattage or nicotine, had decreased SIRT1, elevated NOX1, and displayed pathology that is associated with Alzheimer's Disease. Indeed, the study highlights opportunities, particularly for those interested in tobacco cessation, to advocate for policies, and specific public health actions that can help protect the sensitive fetal brain from the effects of vaping during pregnancy. First, we have the opportunity to act now, even as we await the results of future research and clinical studies. The long-term e-cig health impacts in humans remain unknown, and most studies on vape product use are in adult populations, some of whom have comorbidities. However, currently there are no studies with decades-old results because e-cig product use research is novel (<20 years) and quickly evolving. While further studies are needed to understand the neurological health impacts of long-term vape products on human users, as well as their offspring, we can continue to advocate for vaping cessation during pregnancy. There is no reason to wait for the future results before taking a stand; we can err on the side of caution and focus on helping pregnant women quit vaping. Secondly, cerebrovascular impairment in offspring with maternal e-cig exposure appears to be dependent on the wattage of the e-cig device and not the presence of nicotine. Variable power settings, along with multiple flavours may introduce a new keg of toxicity previously not encountered in traditional tobacco research. The solutions in e-cigs, and their resulting aerosols (in the presence or absence of nicotine), may contain carcinogens, as well as organic and inorganic constituents, to which users and non-users in close proximity can be exposed (Walley & Jenssen, 2015). Given the attractive flavours, marketing, design, and its appeal, e-cigs have the potential to reverse decades of progress achieved in nicotine and tobacco product use (Walley et al., 2019). We could keep the momentum going and talk about device settings, characteristics, and user behaviours with e-cig users to red","journal":"The Journal of Physiology","year":2025,"id":578090,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9589,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1488158,"name":"Brook Gebremariam","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1487781,"name":"C. E. Igwe","orcid":"0000-0003-1909-7909","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":404561,"name":"Sarah Commodore","orcid":"0000-0002-9070-0654","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":4,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:20.638044Z","pmid":"41091594","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}