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. 2020 Jun 1;130(6):2754-2756.
doi: 10.1172/JCI138644.

What are the mechanisms underlying vaping-induced lung injury?

Laura E Crotty Alexander  1   2 , Amy L Bellinghausen  2 , Michelle N Eakin  3
Affiliations

What are the mechanisms underlying vaping-induced lung injury?

Laura E Crotty Alexander et al. J Clin Invest. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: The authors have declared that no conflict of interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Mechanisms underlying lung injury in EVALI.
(A) In the panel on the left, cells of the lung are damaged by one chemical inhaled within e-cigarette aerosols. This cell damage leads to epithelial and endothelial cell necrosis (indicated by a yellow “X”). An alternative hypothesis is depicted on the right, in which inhalation of chemicals common in e-cigarette aerosols (propylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine, or THC) alters the inflammatory state of the lungs, including changing alveolar macrophages to a proinflammatory phenotype with the release of inflammatory cytokines (indicated by yellow circles), such that a second hit causes a pathologic inflammatory response. (B) The immune state of the lungs is known to be altered by the chronic, daily inhalation of e-cigarette aerosols. It is likely that vitamin E is directly cytotoxic to lung cells (indicated by a yellow “X”), leading to necrosis, neutrophil recruitment and activation resulting in collateral damage, and noncardiac pulmonary edema. Illustration credit: Rachel Davidowitz. H&E-stained lung tissues are from the UCSD Liebow Collection, 1974.
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