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J.Health Sci., 48(1), 42-47, 2002
Cyclooxygenase-2 Expression and Relationship to Malignant Potential in Human Bladder Cancer
Ichiro Matsuzawa,a Yukihiro Kondo,a Go Kimura,a Yoshitaka Hashimoto,a Shigeo Horie,b Nobumasa Imura,c Masao Akimoto,a and Shuntaro Hara*, c
aDepartment of Urology, Nippon Medical School, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8602, bDepartment of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, and cDepartment of Public Health and Molecular Toxicology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kitasato University, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8641, Japan
Cyclooxygenase (COX), which catalyzes the synthesis of prostaglandins from arachidonic acid, has two isoforms; COX-1 and COX-2. A large body of evidence exists to suggest that COX-2 is important in gastrointestinal cancer. In order to determine whether COX-2 is expressed in transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the human bladder as well as in gastrointestinal cancer, we investigated COX-2 expression in human TCC by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemical analysis, and we found that normal bladder epithelium did not express COX-2 and that COX-2 was markedly up-regulated in human bladder TCC. In nontumor tissues, COX-2 immunostaining signals were observed only in lymphoid follicles. Furthermore, the intensity and extent of COX-2 immunostaining in the bladder cancer tissues were scored and the relationship to tumor grade and stage was investigated. The levels of COX-2 expression were correlated with the tumor grade; from grades 1 to 3, there was a stepwise increase in the COX-2 immunostaining score. These findings suggested that an increase in COX-2 expression may be associated with bladder carcinogenesis as well as gastrointestinal carcinogenesis, and that it may be useful as a biomarker in bladder cancer.
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