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Information about the potential oral health effects of vaping from electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) is still sparse and inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to compare the safety and cytotoxicity of e-cig liquid aerosols versus traditional cigarette (t-cig) smoke on human epithelial oral cells. T-cig smoke and e-cig aerosols were generated by a newly developed automated smoking instrument in order to simulate realistic user puffing behaviors. Air-liquid interface transwell cell cultures were exposed to standardized puff topography (puff duration: 2 s, puff volume: 35 mL, puff frequency: 1 puff every 60 s) of reference t-cigs or commercially available e-cigs at different air dilutions. Cell viability, morphology, and death rate were evaluated with MTT and TUNEL assays. The inflammatory cytokine gene expression of inflammatory genes was assessed by quantitative RT-PCR. E-cigs and t-cigs indicated similar adverse effects by enhancing cytotoxicity and cell death in a dose-dependent manner. E-cig aerosol and t-cig smoke treatment expressed upregulation of inflammatory cytokines up to 3.0-fold (p < 0.05). These results indicate that e-cig smoking may contribute to oral tissue-cell damage and tissue inflammation. Our approach allows the production of e-cig aerosol and t-cig smoke in order to identify harmful effects in oral tissues in vitro., Toxics, 10 (4)

Because of the current shortage of FFP2/N95 respirators and surgical masks due to COVID-19, solutions are required to safely extend the use or safely reuse those masks. SARS-CoV-2 was shown to be deactivated after 72 h at 22 ◦C, a possibly comparable virus, MERS-CoV, was deactivated suspended in medium within 1.1 min at 65 ◦C, a temperature which does not reducing filtering function of non-vowen or electrically charged filters. Virus deactivation might be strongly accelerated on dry and porous surfaces. In contrast, cleaning and sterilization methods using soap, 70-75% ethanol, isopropanol or chlorine-based disinfectants are not recommended, as it drastically reduces the filtering function.

Clinical use of bioengineered skin in reconstructive surgery has been established for more than 30 years. The limitations and ethical considerations regarding the use of animal models have expanded the application of bioengineered skin in the areas of disease modeling and drug screening. These skin models should represent the anatomical and physiological traits of native skin for the efficient replication of normal and pathological skin conditions. In addition, reliability of such models is essential for the conduction of faithful, rapid, and large-scale studies. Therefore, research efforts are focused on automated fabrication methods to replace the traditional manual approaches. This report presents an overview of the skin models applicable to skin disease modeling along with their fabrication methods, and discusses the potential of the currently available options to conform and satisfy the demands for disease modeling and drug screening.