Smoking-related genes (and smCpGs) that remained in the list following adjustment included many known smCpGs frequently identified in blood (e.g., CpGs in AHRR, ALPPL2, GPR15, GFI1, F2RL3) and most of the highly B cell-specific genes shown in Fig. 2A, B. Among the genes associated with naïve-to-memory shift (486 CpGs/585 genes) were many related to cytokine signaling pathways for B cell functions and activation, Th1/Th2 activation and hematopoietic cancers (Additional file 7: Table S7). The gene discussed is AHRR; the disease is hematopoietic and lymphoid cell neoplasm.