Fig. 6

Epithelial and Notch pathway-related gene expressional changes with smoking dose and smoking status. Scatterplot depicting relative patient transcript levels by smoking pack years and where indicated grouped by smoking status (Ct normalized to GAPDH; negative value). (A) Pooling all groups, only the stem cell protein NKX2-1 demonstrated a decline in BC expression with smoking pack years. Among never and ever smokers, KRT14 transcript levels are higher and SCGB1A1, and CD274 are lower in smokers as compared to that of never smokers. KRT14 levels significantly increase in current smokers with smoking dose. (B) NOTCH2 and HEY1 expression is lower in ever smokers, while NOTCH1 and HES1 levels are specifically reduced in current smokers. Color-coded regression lines ± SEM (shaded) and boxplots representing each group are shown (n ≥ 5; *P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01). Results from passage 3 never-smoker (Never), smoker, lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD), and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) cells are shown