Cigarette smoke induces distinct histone modifications in lung cells: implications for the pathogenesis of COPD and lung cancer.

Cigarette smoke (CS)-mediated oxidative stress induces several signaling cascades, including kinases, which results in chromatin modifications (histone acetylation/deacetylation and histone methylation/demethylation). We have previously reported that CS induces chromatin remodeling in pro-inflammatory gene promoters; however, the underlying site-specific histone marks formed in histones H3 and H4 during CS exposure in lungs in vivo and in lung cells in vitro, which can either drive gene expression or repression, are not known. We hypothesize that CS exposure in mouse and human bronchial epithelial cells (H292) can cause site-specific posttranslational histone modifications (PTMs) that may play an important role in the pathogenesis of CS-induced chronic lung diseases.