Respiratory Research (Aug 2024)

Distinctive field effects of smoking and lung cancer case-control status on bronchial basal cell growth and signaling

  • Olsida Zefi,
  • Spencer Waldman,
  • Ava Marsh,
  • Miao Kevin Shi,
  • Yosef Sonbolian,
  • Batbayar Khulan,
  • Taha Siddiqui,
  • Aditi Desai,
  • Dhruv Patel,
  • Aham Okorozo,
  • Samer Khader,
  • Jay Dobkin,
  • Ali Sadoughi,
  • Chirag Shah,
  • Simon Spivack,
  • Yakov Peter

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-024-02924-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 1
pp. 1 – 13

Abstract

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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 EpCAMpos/ITGA6 pos/CD24pos 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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