Vaping for just a few days can cause lasting lung damage: study

By Stephen Beech

Vaping for just a few days can cause lasting lung damage, reveals new research.

Even brief e-cigarette use may injure the lungs' most delicate tissue and weaken defenses against viral infections, say scientists.

Researchers in the United States studied human lung epithelial and endothelial cells, along with precision-cut human lung tissue, all taken from the distal lung - the deep, delicate region where oxygen passes into the bloodstream.

The team exposed the tissues to e-cigarette vapor alone, and separately tested vapor exposure followed by infection with a respiratory virus, in preclinical models.

The findings showed that within 24 hours, e-cigarette vapor damaged the protective barrier of the distal lung, triggered cellular stress, impaired cells' internal process for clearing damaged components, slowed cell growth and repair, and increased cell death.

Signs of lung stress persisted 10 days after just a five-day exposure period ended, according to the study published in the journal JCI Insight.

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The research team, led by scientists from National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado, observed lasting changes in barrier function, tissue remodeling, and Th1 immunity - a branch of the immune system critical to fighting viral infections.

Previous vaping exposure also increased the quantity of SARS-CoV-2 - the virus responsible for COVID-19 - and suppressed several antiviral genes following infection.

Study senior author Dr. Irina Petrache said: "Our findings suggest that even short-term vaping exposure can initiate injury in the deepest and most delicate regions of the lung.

"Importantly, some effects persisted after exposure ended and altered the immune response to a subsequent viral infection."

Dr. Petrache, a pulmonologist at National Jewish Health, added: "The findings, which will need to be confirmed in future studies in people, point to biological mechanisms that may help explain why vaping has been linked to lung injury and greater susceptibility to respiratory infections."

The research team noted that repeated exposure could potentially contribute to chronic lung disease by sustaining cellular injury and disrupting normal repair.