In more detail, gene expression analysis of hybrids after fusion of lung-cancer cells with MSC revealed markedly increased expression levels of the cancer stem-cell markers CD44 and CD133 and the overall stemness markers Oct4, Nanog, Sox2, Kif4 and Bmi1, which supports the assumption that cancer cells may acquire CS/IC properties through fusion with stem cells [26]. Here, SOX2 is linked to cancer.