Airway Basal Cells Of Healthy Smokers And Human Lung Adenocarcinomas Share A Common Embryonic Stem Cell-like Transcriptional Program

Rationale: Various epithelial cancers, including lung adenocarcinomas, exhibit activation of a human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-like transcriptional program in association with their aggressiveness. We hypothesized that under chronic exposure to the pro-carcinogenic stress of cigarette smoking, airway basal cells, the stem/progenitor cell compartment of the large airway epithelium (LAE), acquire “cancerous” hESC-like molecular phenotype as an early step toward malignant tissue derangement.