Mohi Amr, Durham Emily L, Kishinchand Rajiv, Cray James J
Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy, University of Texas Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine, San Antonio, Texas, United States of America.
Division of Human Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 1;20(8):e0329403. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329403. eCollection 2025.
The Center for Disease Control's National Birth Defects Prevention Study data suggests that maternal nicotine use may increase the incidence of craniofacial birth defects and growth anomalies like craniosynostosis, cleft palate, and/or lip in offspring. Craniofacial growth proceeds by expansion at fibrous sutures and synchondroses. In the cranial base, synchondroses, which are cartilaginous joints, play a major role in craniofacial development including neurocranial expansion and facial outgrowth. Our previous data showed alterations in craniofacial structures with intrauterine exposure to nicotine. As the use of nicotine is increasing among youths, especially through use of electronic nicotine delivery systems, there is a great need to investigate the critical periods of nicotine exposure during pregnancy and postnatal development. Alterations in craniofacial growth that occur in response to maternal nicotine use must be understood in order to prevent debilitating conditions. For this investigation, we utilized cephalometric and histomorphometric analyses to investigate how nicotine exposure alters craniofacial development in offspring modeling maternal nicotine exposure either during pregnancy and lactation or post-partum lactation only compared with unexposed controls. Our results in mice showed significant changes in craniofacial dimensions and some specificity for effects in the synchondroses across the three experimental groups including significant changes in the cellular and the extracellular collagen matrix components of these growth centers. The most dramatic effects segregated to the lactation only exposed group, which is a major target from a prevention point of view as there is a common misconception among the public that nicotine cessation during pregnancy is sufficient for prevention of ill effects in the offspring.
疾病控制中心的全国出生缺陷预防研究数据表明，母亲使用尼古丁可能会增加后代颅面出生缺陷和生长异常的发生率，如颅缝早闭、腭裂和/或唇裂。颅面生长通过纤维缝线和软骨联合处的扩张进行。在颅底，软骨联合作为软骨关节，在颅面发育中起主要作用，包括神经颅扩张和面部生长。我们之前的数据显示，子宫内接触尼古丁会导致颅面结构改变。随着青少年中尼古丁使用量的增加，尤其是通过使用电子尼古丁输送系统，非常有必要研究孕期和产后发育过程中尼古丁暴露的关键时期。为了预防使人衰弱的疾病，必须了解因母亲使用尼古丁而导致的颅面生长改变。在这项研究中，我们利用头影测量和组织形态计量分析，研究与未暴露对照组相比，孕期和哺乳期或仅产后哺乳期模拟母亲尼古丁暴露的情况下，尼古丁暴露如何改变后代的颅面发育。我们在小鼠身上的研究结果显示，三个实验组的颅面尺寸有显著变化，并且对软骨联合处的影响具有一定特异性，包括这些生长中心的细胞和细胞外胶原基质成分有显著变化。最显著的影响集中在仅哺乳期暴露组，从预防的角度来看，这是一个主要目标，因为公众普遍存在一种误解，认为孕期戒烟足以预防对后代的不良影响。
