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 levels and function. Findings from such experiments would elaborate on work done to characterize the association of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy with changes in placental miRNA and expand investigations into new tissues. Additionally, such findings using an in vivo model system may provide key mechanistic data that may further strengthen data from previous epidemiologic association studies with findings from a model system experimental paradigm.
