As reviewed by Maccani and Marsit previously (Maccani & Marsit, 2011), future experiments conducted using cigarette smoke condensate (Crane-Godreau et al., 2009) may enable researchers to better understand effects of complex mixtures of components of cigarette smoke on placental cells and cells derived from other tissues. Of course, such experiments also have the caveat of presenting challenges in determining the specific composition of the complex mixture as well as physiological relevance of exposure to such a mixture on a given cell type. Other more extensive experiments aimed at better understanding the more complex effects of organism-wide cigarette smoke exposure might be designed using mouse models, or other animal models, of chronic environmental tobacco smoke exposure as described previously (Maccani & Marsit, 2011; Xiong, Leme, Ray, Shapiro, & Lee, 2011). In such an experimental design, pregnant mice might be exposed to environmental tobacco smoke throughout their entire gestation and euthanized at key timepoints in gestation, with placentas and other key organs harvested for measurement of miRNA expression and for determination of the effects of dysregulated miRNA expression on target gene protein
