Important advances in understanding DNA methylation patterns and altered miRNA expression associated with maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy have laid the groundwork for a future of exciting research in this domain. Research is ongoing to better understand the reported associations reviewed in this report and the mechanisms underlying the effects of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy. It will also be important to expand the current literature pertaining to the epigenetic mechanisms mediating the effects of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy on neuropsychiatric and neurobehavioral outcomes across development. Additionally, more work needs to be done to explore the role of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy on histone modification and imprinting, two crucial epigenetic mechanisms which play key roles in development and health and which have been vastly understudied in the context of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy.
