Hullo,
Is it possible that endogenous eukaryotic (human) cells might exist in the air exhaled by a human?
I'm guessing it probably is not possible, since there are no reports of this, as far as I can tell.
Assuming that it were possible for such cells to be present in the air exhaled by humans, how long would the cells remain viable ex vivo? If one human were to inhale a cell immediately after it had been exhaled by a second human, would the cell be able to survive and colonise the new respiratory tract environment?
I'm guessing that normal healthy cells would be unable to do so, since detachment from the extracellular matrix usually spells their apoptotic demise, within about 1 hour of detachment.
What if the exhaled cell was transformed, and had multiple genetic hits, inducing anchorage-independence and other phenotypes that would enable it to colonise a foreign environment?
Cancer is not traditionally considered a transmissible disease in humans, except perhaps in the cases of virus-mediated cancers.
My question is: is it possible that human lung cancers might be transmissible by the aerosol route?