According to world health organization (WHO) estimation there is around 1.25 billion smoker worldwide [1] and about 4– 37.2 % of pregnant women smoke regularly [2, 3]. Waterpipe smoking becomes an international new trend of smoking [4]. Many waterpipe smokers believe that this type of smoking is less lethal and addicting than cigarette smoking [5]. The prevalence of waterpipe smoking is increased dramatically among several countries especially among youth [6, 7]. Of interest, the prevalence of waterpipe smoking is increased among pregnant women as well [8, 9].
Waterpipe smoke contains significant amount of nicotine, tar, heavy metals (like arsenic, chromium and lead) [10], polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [11] and high levels of carbon monoxide [12]. The nicotine yield of a single waterpipe smoking session is higher than that of typical cigarette [13]. However, the plasma peak of nicotine does not differ between waterpipe and cigarette smoking [14]. Of notion, nicotine concentrates in fetus more than that of maternal levels [15]. Additionally, the peak carboxyhemoglobin level and the amount of smoke inhaled are higher in waterpipe smoke as compared to cigarette smoke [16-18]. Nicotine smoking during pregnancy results in several harmful effects to the fetus such as low birth weight [19, 20], hypertension [19], asthma [21] and lung function abnormalities [22], retinal abnormalities [23], development of childhood leukemia [24] beside cognitive and behavioral disturbances [15]. However, the effect of prenatal exposure to waterpipe smoking still needs further elucidation. We hypothesize here that in utero exposure to waterpipe smoking affects the development, suppresses
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The specific aims are:
I. Evaluate the effect of prenatal exposure to waterpipe smoking during different stages of pregnancy on newborn rat