Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on November 29, 2008
Human Reproduction 2009 24(2):386-397; doi:10.1093/humrep/den419
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Comparison of toxicity of smoke from traditional and harm-reduction cigarettes using mouse embryonic stem cells as a novel model for preimplantation development
1 UCR Stem Cell Center, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA 2 Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA 3 Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
4 Correspondence address. E-mail: talbot{at}ucr.edu
BACKGROUND: Embryonic stem cells (ESC), which originate from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, are valuable models for testing the effects of toxicants on preimplantation development. In this study, mouse ESC (mESC) were used to compare the toxicity of mainstream (MS) and sidestream (SS) cigarette smoke on cell attachment, survival and proliferation. In addition, smoke from a traditional commercial cigarette was compared with smoke from three harm-reduction brands.
METHODS: MS and SS smoke solutions were made using an analytical smoking machine and tested at three doses using D3 mESC plated on 0.2% gelatin. At 6 and 24 h, images were taken and the number of attached cells was evaluated.
RESULTS: Both MS and SS smoke from traditional and harm-reduction cigarettes inhibited cell attachment, survival and proliferation dose dependently. For all brands, SS smoke was more potent than MS smoke. However, removal of the cigarette filter increased the toxicity of MS smoke to that of SS smoke. Both MS and SS smoke from harm-reduction cigarettes were as inhibitory, or more inhibitory, than their counterparts from the traditional brand. When preimplantation mouse embryos were cultured for 1 h in MS or SS smoke solutions from a harm-reduction brand, blastomeres became apoptotic, in agreement with the data obtained using mESC.
CONCLUSIONS: mESC provide a valuable model for toxicological studies on the preimplantation stage of development and were used to show that MS and SS smoke from traditional and harm-reduction cigarettes are detrimental to embryonic cells prior to implantation.
Key words: embryonic stem cells/cigarette smoke/development/embryos/reproduction
Submitted on September 16, 2008; resubmitted on October 14, 2008; accepted on October 20, 2008.