Detection of messenger RNA for the β-subunit of chorionic gonadotropin in urinary cells from patients with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction

✍ Scribed by Kristina Hotakainen; Susanna Lintula; Jakob Stenman; Erkki Rintala; Ossi Lindell; Ulf-Håkan Stenman

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 126 KB
• Volume: 84
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19990621)84:3<304::aid-ijc18>3.0.co;2-b

✦ Synopsis

We studied whether detection of messenger-RNA (mRNA) for the beta-subunit of chorionic gonadotropin (CG␤) in urinary cells from bladder cancer patients could be used as a marker of disease activity. Sixty-eight urine samples from patients under follow-up for bladder cancer and 23 samples from patients with other malignancies and non-malignant surgical conditions, as well as 14 samples from healthy controls were analyzed. RNA was isolated from urinary cells collected by centrifugation. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect CG␤ mRNA. The results were compared to those obtained by cystoscopy and urinary cytology. For comparison, we determined CG and CG␤ in serum and urine and the core fragment of CG␤ (CG␤cf) in urine by immunofluorometric assays. CG␤ mRNA was detected in 29 of 68 urine samples from patients with a history of bladder cancer, whereas all 14 samples from healthy controls tested negative. Elevated levels of CG␤ were observed in serum in 18 of 45 bladder cancer patients, but the association with CG␤ mRNA was weak. However, CG␤ mRNA expression in the absence of detectable cancer also occurred in some conditions associated with cellular atypia such as urinary tract infection, instrumentation and certain therapies. There was a highly significant association between histologically verified transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder and CG␤ mRNA in urine (p ‫؍‬ 0.0014), implying CG␤ mRNA expression in tumor tissue. We conclude that CG␤ mRNA is a potential new marker for monitoring of bladder cancer. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether it provides independent clinical information. Int. J. Cancer (Pred. Oncol.