You can expose cultured cells growing in a dish to concentrations of nicotine at the levels of nicotine in the blood of smokers, and higher, without killing them. I've seen the experiment done - although not in stem cells. You do have to use an appropriate carrier for the nicotine. If you dissolve the nicotine in the wrong carrier, that substance will kill the cells. However, the only cells that are exposed to smoke or vapor are the ones that are actively absorbing the nicotine- by the time it gets to the rest of the cells in the body it's carried by the bloodstream- that is, dissolved in something that belongs in the body. so, yeah, stem cells shouldn't vape.
The article doesn't have a link to the actual data, they make it sound as if they removed the fluid media the cells were growing in to actively expose cultured cells to smoke or vapor. That wouldn't be good for the cells. They don't like sitting outside of the fluid you grow them in. Maybe they did it some other way, bubbling the smoke or vapor through the media- but it sounds like a poorly designed experiment and it is certainly an annoying sound bite.
The article doesn't have a link to the actual data, they make it sound as if they removed the fluid media the cells were growing in to actively expose cultured cells to smoke or vapor. That wouldn't be good for the cells. They don't like sitting outside of the fluid you grow them in. Maybe they did it some other way, bubbling the smoke or vapor through the media- but it sounds like a poorly designed experiment and it is certainly an annoying sound bite.
