Expression Of The Chemokine Receptor 7 (CXCR7) In Urothelial Cancer Of The Bladder

Objective: To investigate the expression of CXCR7 in urothelial cancer of the bladder and the relationship between the expression level of CXCR7 and clinical features of urothelial cancer of the bladder and explore the role of CXCR7 in the genesis and development of the bladder cancer.Methods: 1.The protein expression of CXCR7 in 69 cases of urothelial cancer of the bladder and 11 cases of adjacent tissue were examined by immunohistochemistry. 2.The protein expression of CXCR7 in 30 cases of urothelial cancer of the bladder and 11 cases of adjacent tissue were examined by western blot.Results: 1.Immunohistochemistry:The positive rates of CXCR7 protein in the tissues of urothelial cancer of the bladder and the adjacent tissues were 94.2%(65/69) and 9.1%(1/11) respectively, and there were 39 cases of high expression and 30 cases of low expression in the 69 cases of positive bladder cancer. The expression of CXCR7 protein in bladder cancer was significantly higher than in adjacent tissue (P <0.01). In the 69 cases of urothelial cancer of the bladder, the positive rates of high expression of CXCR7 protein in the low-grade group and the high-grade group were 45.0%(18/40) and 72.4%(21/29), and the positive rates of high expression of CXCR7 protein in Non-invasive group (Ta~T1) and invasive group (T2~T4) were 37.8%(14/37) and 78.1%(25/32). There was significant difference of positive rates in different clinical stage (P=0.023) and pathological grade (P=0.001) of urothelial cancer of the bladder. 2.Western blot:By the gray-scale analysis of the bands, we got the mean relative gray value of urothelial cancer of the bladder was x±s=1.212±0.247 and the mean relative gray value of the adjacent tissues was x±s =0.579±0.156, the expression of CXCR7 protein in bladder cancer tissues was significantly higher than in adjacent tissues, and there was significant difference of positive rates in different clinical stage(P=0.038) and pathological grade(P =0.025) of urothelial cancer of the bladder by t-test. Conclusions:1.The expression of CXCR7 protein in bladder cancer tissues was significantly higher than in adjacent tissues, which reveals that CXCXR7 may play an important role in the carcinogenesis and progression of urothelial cancer of the bladder. 2.The high level expression of CXCR7 is related with clinical stage and pathological grade in urothelial cancer of the bladder. It reveals that CXCR7 may be an new indicator of malignant level of the bladder cancer. 3.CXCR7 may provide a new target for targeted therapy of the bladder cancer.