Integrin Expression And Its Clinic Values In Urologic Tumors

Part 1. Integrin a 2 And a 3 Expression and It's Clinical Values inBladder Transitional Cell CarcinomaObjective: To determine the clinical value of the expression of integrin subunit a 2 and a 3 in bladder transitional cell carcinoma. Materials and Methods: In 12 normal bladder tissues and 53 bladder transitional cell carcinoma tissues (BTCC), integrin a 2 and a 3 expression was examined by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry. Its clinical significances were analyzed. Results: Immunohistochemicaly, Integrin a 2 and a 3 subunits were expressed strongly in the normal bladder tissues. However, these subunits expression was reduced in BTCC tissues compared to normal ones (p<0.01). There was a reverse correlation between a 2 expression and clinical stage (p<0.05). While no significant association was found between these two subunits and other clinical or pathological characteristics. With RT-PCR technology, there was only integrin subunit 3A mRNA (one variant of a 3) was detected. Integrin 3 mRNA were found positive (100%, 12/12) in all normal tissues, the positive rateof 3 in BTCC was reduced to 67.9% (36/53) (p<0.05). There was no correlation between 3 mRNA expression and pathological diffientiation (p>0.05), but there were significant related to clinical stage (p<0.05). In the levels of protein and the mRAN, the expressions were positive correlated (p<0.01). Conclusions: The reduction of the integrin 2 and 3 expression would make the adhesion reduced between BTCC cells, therefore enhance the invasion and metastasis. The loss of integrin 3mRNA is a important cause for the immunohistochemical change of this subunit. The status learned by our method of the two subunits can be used to predict malignant tendency of BTCC and may be able to provide additional prognostic information for the clinical work.