Abstract: To investigate the retention behavior of smoke components by tobacco rod of cigarette during smoking, a method for analyzing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) retained in tobacco rod was established and the retention behavior of 21 PAHs was studied. Cigarettes with removed filters were smoked for one puff under a defined machine-smoking protocol, followed by quenching of the combustion cone with liquid nitrogen. The remaining tobacco rods were cut transversely into approximately 5 mm long pieces using an automatic cigarette cutter, followed by extraction with cyclohexane. The contents of PAHs retained in these subsections were analyzed by GC-MS/MS and the distributions of PAHs were obtained. The effects of puff volume, tobacco rod density, and cigarette circumference on the retention of PAHs in tobacco rods were investigated. The results showed that: 1) The retention rates of 21 PAHs in tobacco rod varied from 25.2% to 65.5%, of which 19 PAHs were retained over 40%, indicating stronger retention of PAHs by tobacco rod. Retention rates increased with increasing boiling points of PAHs. 2) The retention of tobacco rod on PAHs was concentrated in the first 25 mm length of tobacco rod subsection adjacent to the combustion cone, while the retention became weaker in the downstream subsection. 3) The cumulative retention rates of tobacco rod on the PAHs showed a decreasing trend with increasing puff volume from 20 mL to 70 mL. 4) When the tobacco rod density varied from 223 mg/cm³ to 281 mg/cm³, the overall cumulative retention rates of tobacco rod subsections on PAHs increased. 5) The cumulative retention rates of the PAHs for 24.2 mm circumference cigarette were higher than that of 17.0 mm at equal tobacco rod length.