Histopathologically, the tumors of MS- and sham-exposed mice are not different. Also, their distribution within the lungs is not different. In the current and in previous A/J mouse studies discussed above, lung tumors in smoke-exposed mice were on average smaller and there was a trend to a lower degree of malignancy compared to those in sham-exposed mice. Both effects may, however, be due to a delayed tumorigenic process by concomitant smoke exposure compared to spontaneous tumorigenesis, as previously discussed ( Stinn et al., 2010 and Stinn et al., 2012). In the current study, a GSK2118436 supplier clear difference between tumor tissues from MS- and

sham-exposed mice was evident based on a gene expression signature, which clearly discriminated MS-exposed tissues from sham-exposed tissues with an overall predictive success rate of 95%. The tissues used for the gene expression analysis were harvested after a 2-day post-inhalation period in order to allow Obeticholic Acid chemical structure recovery of acute smoking-related gene expression effects, such as those regulated by the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR). A rapid recovery of acute smoke exposure effects on gene regulation has been observed in previous

studies (Gebel et al., 2010 and Haussmann et al., 2009), and indeed the induction of cyp1a1 as the most prominent representative of these acute AhR-dependent effects decreased from approximately 300-fold to approximately 2-fold in non-tumor tissue in the 2-day post-inhalation period in the current study (more details Janus kinase (JAK) to be published elsewhere). Nevertheless, the qualitative difference of the tumors of MS- and sham-exposed mice may be related to

a sustained change in gene expression due to MS inhalation lasting longer than the 2-day recovery period. This interpretation is favored by the 95% accuracy in allocation of tumors to MS exposure on the basis of the gene expression signature. This is more accurate than one could expect based on a roughly 4-fold increase in MS-induced tumor multiplicity beyond control, which theoretically could be based on 1/4 of tumors having developed spontaneously and 3/4 having specifically been induced by the smoke exposure. Inflammatory effects may be involved in the tumorigenesis of MS in this model. Such effects were investigated and discussed in detail in Study 1 (Stinn et al., 2012), but were not assessed in the current study. In order to provide an indication of the reproducibility of inflammatory effects, the major inflammatory endpoint in this type of study, i.e., the accumulation of neutrophils in the lungs analyzed upon bronchoalveolar lavage, can be compared among studies. The percentage of neutrophils in Study 1 at the end of the 5-month inhalation period at an MS concentration of 298 mg TPM/m3 was 33% relative to all cells harvested.