Tissue samples and cell lines

Paired NSCLC and normal adjacent lung tissues were obtained, with informed consent, from 25 patients who underwent primary surgical resection of NSCLC between 2014 and 2015 at the Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University (Shenyang, People’s Republic of China). Informed consent was obtained from each patient to approve the use of their tissues for research purposes. The study protocol was approved by the Institute Research Ethics Committee at Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University. The NSCLC cell lines A549 was obtained from Shengjing Hospital and cultured in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM; Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). All cells were incubated in a humidified (37°C, 5% CO₂) incubator.