Overexpression and Clinicopathological Contribution of DcR3 in Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma Tissues

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> To explore the expression of DcR3 protein and its clinicopathological significance in bladderurothelial carcinomas (BUC). Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Immunohistochemistry was performed to detect theexpression of DcR3, caspase-3, Bcl-2, VEGF, Ki-67, PCNA and P53 in 166 BUC and 56 normal bladder tissues.Western blotting was used to detect the expression of DcR3 in the supernatants of cultured BUC cells. <br/><b>Results</b>:Overexpression of DcR3 was found in BUC tissues and cell lines, with significant elevation as compared to normalbladder tissues (p<0.0001). Higher DcR3 expression was related to the status of invasion, lymph node metastasisand recurrence. Furthermore, DcR3 expression was negatively correlated with caspase-3 and positively associatedwith Bcl-2, VEGF, Ki-67 labeling index (LI), PCNA LI and P53 (all p<0.0001), respectively. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: DcR3may play a crucial role as an oncogene in tumorigenesis, deterioration and progress of BUC via influencingrelated pathways of apoptosis, proliferation and angiogenesis. The detection of DcR3 protein in the formalinfixedand paraffin-embedded samples could assist to predict in prognosis of BUC patients.