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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Using Nicotine in a Silica-Exposed Mouse Model to Promote Lung Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
Published on: March 3, 2023
Nicotine and angiogenesis: a new paradigm for tobacco-related diseases
1Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. john.cooke@stanford.edu
Abstract:
The pathophysiology of tobacco-related diseases is complex and multifactorial. Among the approximately 4,000 compounds in tobacco smoke are carcinogens such as nitrosamines, irritants such as a variety of phenolic compounds, volatiles such as carbon monoxide, and of course nicotine. Nicotine itself has quite complex actions, mediated in part by nicotinic cholinergic receptors that may have extraneuronal, as well as neuronal distribution. This review discusses the mechanisms by which nicotine contributes to tobacco-related disease, with a focus on the surprising new finding that nicotine is a potent angiogenic agent. Nicotine hijacks an endogenous nicotinic cholinergic pathway present in endothelial cells that is involved in physiological, as well as pathological angiogenesis.
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