London: This news is all expectant mothers. A new study has revealed that smoking cigarettes during pregnancy may cause damage to foetal organs, especially to the liver, and may harm as well.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Edinburgh which showed that the potent cocktail of 7,000 chemicals in cigarettes was particularly harmful to the prenatal developing liver cells.
The liver plays a major role in regulating metabolism by clearing toxic substances from the body.
The finding also showed that these chemicals damage livers of male and female foetuses differently. Researchers said, while the male tissue showed liver scarring, the female tissue showed more damage to cell metabolism.
For the study, the team developed a novel way to analyse the effects of maternal smoking on liver tissue using embryonic stem cells.
David Hay from the University of Edinburgh said,"Cigarette smoke is known to have damaging effects on the foetus, yet we lack appropriate tools to study this in a very detailed way. This new approach means that we now have sources of renewable tissue that will enable us to understand the cellular effect of cigarettes on the unborn foetus."
Scientists used pluripotent stem cells -- non-specialised cells that have the distinctive ability to be able to transform into other cell types -- to build foetal liver tissue.
Liver cells were exposed to harmful chemicals found in cigarettes, including specific substances known to circulate in foetuses when mothers smoke.
The results revealed that a chemical cocktail -- similar to that found in cigarettes -- harmed foetal liver health more than individual components.
The study was published in the journal Archives of Toxicology.
(With IANS inputs)
