Biology of the Oral Epithelium of E-Cigarette Smokers

Electronic cigarettes (EC) are battery powered nicotine delivery devices that aerosolize nicotine and other flavor constituents. Despite the increasing use of EC, little attention has been paid to their possible adverse effects on human health. Theoretically, the risk relates to nicotine per se and/or the propellants or contaminants in the EC aerosol. The hypothesis underlying the proposal is that chronic EC smoking disorders the biology of the oral epithelium, the first cell population exposed to inhaled EC vapors. Using a cross-sectional, cohort-comparison of EC smokers compared to age-, gender- and ethnicity-matched never smokers, the investigators propose to assess the oral epithelium obtained by punch biopsy or brushing from 100 EC smokers and 25 nonsmoker controls. The EC study cohort will be restricted to young adults (age 21-35 yr) with no prior history of tobacco smoking, but who have smoked EC for \>6 months.