New Study Links Vaping With Infertility, Miscarriages and Other Pregnancy Issues Among Women

Vaping has previously been linked to difficulty conceiving and miscarriages, and new laboratory research suggests a common e-cigarette flavouring chemical could interfere with early embryo development.

Researchers studied vanillin, a flavouring chemical often used at high concentrations in e-cigarettes. They conducted laboratory experiments because directly testing the chemical on embryos in pregnant women would be unethical.

E-Cigarette Flavouring May Affect Embryo Development

The study involved human embryonic stem cells similar to those present in embryos at around three weeks of pregnancy. At that early stage, the cells can develop into any type of cell in the human body.

Researchers exposed these cells to extremely small amounts of vanillin.

They found that micromolar concentrations tended to kill the cells. Meanwhile, even smaller nanomolar concentrations caused the cells to lose their ability to develop into all different cell types.

Study leader Prue Talbot of the University of California, Riverside, said the changes could be serious enough to interfere with normal embryo development.

The researchers also investigated how vanillin produced these effects.

Embryonic cells contain a surface protein known as TRPV4, which can bind with vanillin. When researchers blocked the activity of TRPV4, they also blocked vanillin’s effects on the stem cells.

Based on those results, the researchers concluded that TRPV4 likely plays a key role in how the flavouring affects embryonic cells.

However, they stressed that laboratory findings do not prove that vanillin produces the same effects in pregnant women or developing human embryos.

Still, the findings could help researchers understand why previous research has linked vaping with problems conceiving and miscarriages. The study was published in Human Reproduction.

Talbot also warned that women may not always know which chemicals their vaping products contain. She said the findings support advising women against vaping during pregnancy, particularly those experiencing fertility problems or miscarriages.

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