NYMC Faculty Publications

Distinctive Field Effects of Smoking and Lung Cancer Case-Control Status on Bronchial Basal Cell Growth and Signaling

Authors

Olsida Zefi, Department of Biology, Lander College, Touro University, New York, NY, 11367, USA.
Spencer Waldman, Department of Biology, Lander College, Touro University, New York, NY, 11367, USA.
Ava Marsh, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Miao Kevin Shi, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Yosef Sonbolian, Department of Biology, Lander College, Touro University, New York, NY, 11367, USA.
Batbayar Khulan, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Taha Siddiqui, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Aditi Desai, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Dhruv Patel, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Aham Okorozo, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Samer Khader, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Jay Dobkin, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Ali Sadoughi, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Chirag Shah, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Simon Spivack, Pulmonary Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA.
Yakov Peter, Department of Biology, Lander College, Touro University, New York, NY, 11367, USA. yakov.peter@touro.edu.

Author Type(s)

Faculty

DOI

10.1186/s12931-024-02924-w

Journal Title

Respiratory Research

First Page

317

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-19-2024

Department

Cell Biology and Anatomy

Abstract

RATIONAL: Basal cells (BCs) are bronchial progenitor/stem cells that can regenerate injured airway that, in smokers, may undergo malignant transformation. As a model for early stages of lung carcinogenesis, we set out to characterize cytologically normal BC outgrowths from never-smokers and ever-smokers without cancers (controls), as well as from the normal epithelial "field" of ever-smokers with anatomically remote cancers, including lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) (cases). METHODS: Primary BCs were cultured and expanded from endobronchial brushings taken remote from the site of clinical or visible lesions/tumors. Donor subgroups were tested for growth, morphology, and underlying molecular features by qRT-PCR, RNAseq, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, and immunoblot. RESULTS: (a) the BC population includes epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) positive and negative cell subsets; (b) smoking reduced overall BC proliferation corresponding with a 2.6-fold reduction in the EpCAM/ITGA6 /CD24 stem cell fraction; (c) LUSC donor cells demonstrated up to 2.8-fold increase in dysmorphic BCs; and (d) cells procured from LUAD patients displayed increased proliferation and S-phase cell cycle fractions. These differences corresponded with: (i) disparate NOTCH1/NOTCH2 transcript expression and altered expression of potential downstream (ii) E-cadherin (CDH1), tumor protein-63 (TP63), secretoglobin family 1a member 1 (SCGB1A1), and Hairy/enhancer-of-split related with YRPW motif 1 (HEY1); and (iii) reduced EPCAM and increased NK2 homeobox-1 (NKX2-1) mRNA expression in LUAD donor BCs. CONCLUSIONS: These and other findings demonstrate impacts of donor age, smoking, and lung cancer case-control status on BC phenotypic and molecular traits and may suggest Notch signaling pathway deregulation during early human lung cancer pathogenesis.

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