NFKB1 and endothelial dysfunction: As shown in in vitro studies of human gingival epithelial cells (Semlali et al., 2012) and macrophages (Yang et al., 2006), smoking leads to dysregulation of TLRs and NF-κB, which contribute to atherogenesis by promoting OxS, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction (Hovland et al., 2015; Lazaridis et al., 2021).