Taken collectively, these studies suggest the future utility of using DNA methylation patterns in cord blood or maternal blood as biomarkers of prenatal exposures. Future studies using more agnostic approaches (such as DNA methylation microarrays) may be of important utility in developing comparatively less biased, hypothesis-generating methods capable of further exploring often complex pathways affected by prenatal smoke exposure. Additionally, such technological approaches may discover DNA methylation biomarkers with greater sensitivity and specificity for assessing maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy.
