A Slippery Rock University professor is at the forefront of research into the cardiovascular effects of electronic cigarette use. Jennifer Piechowski, an SRU assistant professor of biology, first decided to study e-cigarette usage after a conversation with a family member.
“They were talking to me about how you can use this stuff to decrease nicotine or use it with no nicotine,” Piechowski said. “What really sparked my interest in it was what happens with vaping products that don’t have nicotine in it and is just flavored.”
Vapes, which are devices used for inhaling vapor that contain flavoring and sometimes nicotine, are a relatively new product, emerging into the market around 2006. Analysis of vaping’s impact on the human body is relatively limited. According to Piechowski, though, research into this topic is only growing, and researchers are getting more answers each day.
Piechowski conducted a study in collaboration with Brian Bagatto from the University of Akron that builds upon their 2021 study into the effects of e-cigarette use on cardiovascular function. The first study used zebra fish embryos that have been exposed to e-cigarette vapor to analyze embryonic cardiovascular function and development due to maternal vape use.
In the 2021 study, Piechowski and Bagatto incorporated cinnamon flavored vapor from an e-cigarette into water, then introducing zebra fish embryos. The results indicated that cinnamon flavored e-cigarette vapor can in fact affect cardiovascular function in early development.
“What we saw from the initial study with the zebra fish embryos is what led to us looking into these chemical analyses,” Piechowski said.
Earlier this year, Piechowski and Bagatto’s had their research published in microPublication Biology, detailing their chemical analyses using qualitative gas-chromatography/mass spectrometry to identify compounds present in the cinnamon vapor. Gas-chromatography is a process in which different substances travel through a treated column at different speeds, which allows them to be identified. Mass spectrometry is a similar process that allows scientists to analyze the compositions of samples based on the molecules they’re made of.
Through their analysis, Piechowski and Bagatto identified cinnamaldehyde and eugenol— two known cardiovascular suppressants—in the non-nicotine cinnamon vapor. These findings possibly explain the cardiovascular effects seen in the exposed embryos in the 2021 study.
Since the study’s publication, Piechowski has been able to make direct connections between her research in the laboratory and her teaching in the classroom at SRU.
“A number of the classes that I teach are anatomy and physiology, and I know from talking about the cardiovascular system, it’s easy to allude to some of the effects that we’ve seen,” Piechowski said. “When talking about the cardiovascular system, students become more interested in it because most of them know someone who vapes.”
Piechowski emphasized the real-world connections and implications that this study has. Thanks to the Dr. Christopher F. Cuff ’82 Undergraduate Research Fund, an internal grant at SRU, Piechowski and Stacy Hrizo, SRU professor of biology, have gathered a group of SRU students to perform cell culture studies of cell lines that have been exposed to a condensate of non-nicotine cinnamon e-cigarette vapor.
Piechowski recognizes the public health concerns that surround vaping, even the allegedly “safer” nicotine-free options.
This continuation of Piechowski’s research means that SRU faculty and students will be able to take part in finding answers to pressing questions about the safety of e-cigarette usage, answers that are of vital importance in the realm of cardiovascular health.
More information about the biology program at SRU is available on the department’s webpage.
