Fig. 1
From: Transcriptomic responses in the blood and sputum of cigarette smokers compared to e-cigarette vapers
Diagrammatic representation of the study cohort and workflow. A total of 65 participants were enrolled in the study; all underwent exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO) measurement, spirometry, sputum induction with hypertonic saline, and blood draw. Adequate (i.e., with less than 10% squamous cells) sputum samples were obtained from 33 subjects. Good quality RNA (RNA integrity numbers (RIN) > 7) was obtained from 23 samples, which then were matched with whole blood RNAs from the same subjects to comprise our final study cohort. Following RNA-Seq and principal component analysis, additional samples were excluded (see main text and Fig. 2) before in-depth analysis of differentially expressed genes. Only smokers and controls with eCO of < 5 ppm were included in the final analysis