Fig. 5

BC gene expression level changes with age can be disrupted by smoking and cancer. Scatterplots depicting the relationship between gene expression, age, and patient group in Passage 3 cells. (A) CDH1, TP63, SCGB1A1, and HEY1 transcript levels decrease with age when pooling normalized gene counts of all groups. (B) Correcting for examined groups, in comparison to a decline in never smoker levels of CDH1, expression remains flat in smokers and cancer cases as indicated by patient BC cycle threshold (portrayed as negative, -Ct; normalized to GAPDH). Patient data points, regression line, and standard error of the mean (shaded and in respective colors), as well as parameter boxplots are shown. Never-smokers (Never), smokers, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC); n ≥ 3;*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01