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Electronic Cigarette Exposure Exacerbates Traumatic Brain Injury Immune Responses in Small Intestines and Lungs
Location: East Ballroom
Mentor: Dr. Juliana Sanchez
As e-cigarette (EC) popularity rises among adolescents, their detrimental effects have become a focus of recent research. One concern is youths’ active lifestyles leave them prone to mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI), such as concussions. The central question of this study is how TBI, after exposure to ECs, will affect the small intestines and lungs. We hypothesize EC exposure will exacerbate TBI immune responses in both tissues. This study aims to determine how these factors interact and express themselves through a rat model. Rats were exposed to EC vapor or air for 16 days, followed by a sham injury or mild-TBI by a Fluid Percussion Injury model. After 21 days, tissue was collected and analyzed under a light microscope. Our results revealed both EC vapor and TBI induced inflammation within the small intestinal villi. Combined, EC and TBI led to membrane morphology distorting inflammation along with reduced villi volume suggesting reduced absorption surface area and potentially impaired gut permeability, which could lead to infection and malnutrition. In the lungs, EC vapor and TBI showed inflammation infiltrating the alveoli, with TBI also resulting in breakage of the alveoli. TBI and EC, in combination, resulted in interstitial inflammation which reduced alveolar volume and constricted bronchioles. These findings are consistent with markers for fibrosis, which could lead to COPD. This study illustrates the worsened effects of TBI when combined with ECs, and future studies will be needed to investigate the long-term impacts of these factors.
