Overall, a total of 420 DEGs were associated with smoke exposure in COPD ferrets (Fig. 2, Additional file 1: Table S1) Cytochrome P450 family 1 subfamily B member 1 (CYP1B1) was highly upregulated in the model (5.1-fold increase, Benjamini–Hochberg adjusted p-value = 2.41E−44), in line with previous observations in humans with COPD [31] and rodent exposure models [32], and thus served as an important quality control. The gene discussed is CYP1B1; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.