Smoking Significantly Alters Genes In Mice

Some studies have suggested that women who smoke are more susceptible to lung cancer than their male counterparts, and now new mouse research may help explain why. A Fox Chase Cancer Center researcher and her colleagues have identified a genetic alteration that occurred up to 13 times more frequently in the lung tissue of mice exposed to tobacco smoke than those in a control group. Even after just three weeks, the mice who breathed tobacco smoke had elevated levels of the enzyme CYP1B1, which activates estradiol, one of the body's natural estrogen hormones. The discovery

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