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Nicotine use in male mice can affect brain function in their grandchildren

Current estimates suggest that there are nearly 38 million people in the US who smoke cigarettes and an estimated 10.8 million people use e-cigarettes with this number rising every year. Nicotine is an addictive drug found in both conventional cigarettes as well as e-cigarettes, cigars, and hookah. Many of the harmful effects of smoking in adults are not attributed to nicotine however, there exist significant risks in pregnant women relating to the developing fetus including: abnormal brain development, type-2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and respiratory dysfunction. There has also been a number of studies linking paternal smoking habits with attention deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and problems with attention control in offspring. Unfortunately, human studies often have difficulties separating maternal or paternal smoking effects from other environmental or genetic effects. To answer this question in a more controlled manner, a team of researchers from Florida turned to a mouse model of…