Table 1.

Impact of selected components of cigarette smoke and next-generation tobacco/nicotine products on endothelial function (modified after [28, 74])

Substance	Unit	HnB-tobacco sticks [64]	Conventional cigarettes [16]	Reduction (%)	Impact on endothelial function
Nicotine	mg/tobacco sample*	1.1	1.07–2.70	-	Promotes endothelial dysfunction and release of catecholamines [20] and causes hemodynamic changes (e.g. alteration of heart rate and blood pressure, vasoconstriction) [5, 8, 36]
Acetaldehyde	μg/tobacco sample	179.4–183.5	930–1540	80.7–88.5	Inhalation of acetaldehyde gases at smoke-relevant concentrations impairs flow-mediated dilation (FMD) by 50 % [71]
Acrolein	μg/tobacco sample	8.9–9.9	89.2–154.1	90.0–94.2	Promotes endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress, dyslipidemia, and platelet activation [13, 20, 55, 89, 93, 100]
Formaldehyde	μg/tobacco sample	4.7–5.3	29.3–130.3	84.0–96.4	Induces endothelial dysfunction [47]
Crotonaldehyde	μg/tobacco sample	<3.0	32.7–70.8	90.8–95.8	Induces vascular injury via DNA interstrand crosslinks, glutathione perturbation, mitogen–activated protein kinase, and Wnt and ErbB signaling pathways [105] and at higher concentrations tension oscillations (spasms) and irreversibly impaired contractility [46]
Benzene	μg/tobacco sample	0.5–0.6	49.7–98.3	99.0–99.5	Increases low-density lipoprotein, decreases circulating angiogenic cells, and increases cardiovascular risk scores [1]
1,3 Butadiene	μg/tobacco sample	0.2	77.0–116.7	99.7–99.8	Promotes oxidative stress and atherosclerosis [78]

*Tobacco samples are defined as one tobacco stick of HnB tobacco products and one conventional cigarette. The studies used the Health Canada Intense (HCI) protocol