Nicotine may not be all bad: A study found it stimulated new blood vessel growth in mice by actively signaling their bone marrow to release vessel-forming adult stem cells.
The finding might translate to the use someday of nicotine as a means of helping wound healing and other conditions where new blood vessel growth is key, experts say. It also gives insight into unwanted vessel growth, such as that which happens during tumor formation.
The findings don't mean doctors will ever recommend smoking, however.
Comment: That is because they remain ignorant of the following among others:
Nicotine - The Zombie Antidote
Let's All Light Up!
Pestilence, the Great Plague and the Tobacco Cure
Comets, plagues, tobacco and the origin of life on earth
"I don't want people to think that smoking is good for you," cautioned co-author Dr. John P. Cooke, a professor of medicine at Stanford University's School of Medicine in California. "Tobacco smoke contains 4,000 compounds, and nicotine is just one of them. And what we've discovered is that nicotine alone can cause blood vessel growth."
"Blood vessel growth is like fire," Cooke added. "It's neither good nor bad. So, certainly nicotine-associated blood vessel formation can cause problems, in the context of enhancing tumor growth, causing macular degeneration and blindness, or promoting coronary plaque. But, on the other hand, knowing that this phenomenon occurs, we can potentially manipulate it in a way that can be therapeutic -- such as to enhance insufficient wound healing where part of the problem is related to poor blood vessel growth."