Background

E-cigarette aerosol containing aldehydes, including acetaldehyde, are metabolized by the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2). However, little is known how aldehyde exposure from e-cigarettes, when coupled with an inactivating ALDH2 genetic variant, ALDH2*2 (present in 8% of the world population), affects cardiovascular oxidative stress.

Objectives

The study was to determine how e-cigarette aerosol exposure, coupled with genetics, impacts cardiovascular oxidative stress in wild type ALDH2 and ALDH2*2 knock-in mice.

Methods

Using selective ion flow mass spectrometry, we determined e-cigarette aerosol contains acetaldehyde levels 10-fold higher than formaldehyde or acrolein. Based on this finding, we tested how isolated ALDH2*2 primary cardiomyocytes respond to acetaldehyde and how intact ALDH2*2 knock-in rodents instrumented with telemeters respond physiologically and at the molecular level to 10 days of e-cigarette aerosol exposure relative to wild type ALDH2 rodents.

Results

For ALDH2*2 isolated cardiomyocytes, acetaldehyde (1 μM) caused a 4-fold greater peak calcium influx, 2-fold increase in ROS production and 2-fold increase in 4-HNE-induced protein adducts relative to wild-type ALDH2 cardiomyocytes. The heart rate in ALDH2*2 mice increased ∼200 beats/min, while, heart rate in ALDH2 mice increased ∼150 beats/min after 10 days of e-cigarette exposure, relative to air-exposed mice. E-cigarette aerosol exposure triggered ∼1.3 to 2-fold higher level of protein carbonylation, lipid peroxidation, and phosphorylation of NF-κB for both strains of mice, with this response exacerbated for ALDH2*2 mice.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate people carrying an ALDH2*2 genetic variant may be more susceptible to increases in cardiovascular oxidative stress from e-cigarette aerosol exposure.