Anticancer Effect of Magnolia officinalis' Extract on N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) Nitrosamine Induced Bladder Cancer in Mice / 대한비뇨기과학회지

PURPOSE: Magnolia officinalis has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a variety of diseases. The main constituents of Magnolia officinalis are honokiol and magnolol, which have a variety of pharmacological effects, such as antitumor, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory etc. This study examined the anticancer effect of a Magnolia officinalis' extract on urinary bladder cancer in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male mice C3H/He were used as the experimental animals. The mice were divided into ten groups. Normal drinking water was provided to group 1(5 mice) for 20 weeks and 0.05% N-butyl- N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine(BBN) was added to in the drinking water of group 2(5 mice). 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0% Magnolia officinalis' extract was added to groups 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively(5 mice each), and 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0% Magnolia officinalis' extract plus 0.05% BBN was added to groups 7, 8, 9 and 10, respectively(10 mice each) for the same period. All surviving mice were sacrificed at week 20 to investigate the occurrence of bladder cancer, stage and grade. RESULTS: Bladder cancer was not observed in groups 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mice. The rates of bladder cancer occurrence were 57.1, 66.7, 44.4 and 20.0% in groups 7, 8, 9 and 10, respectively. The incidence decreased with increasing concentration of Magnolia officinalis (p=0.005). However, the stage and grade were not associated with the concentration of Magnolia officinalis(each p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that Magnolia officinalis has some protective effect against bladder cancer. In the future, Magnolia officinalis may be expected to play an important role as a chemo-preventive and therapeutic agent or as a complementary agent in bladder cancer.

Analysis of the NF-kappaB and Apoptosis Inducing Genes in Bladder Tumor / 대한비뇨기과학회지

PURPOSE: A multi-subunit transcription factor NF-kappaB mediates the antiapoptotic signals in several cancer cell lines and it is activated in a broad range of human tumors. In this study, we investigated whether the expression levels of the NF-kappaB and the apoptosis inducing genes were related to the pathogenesis and clinical properties of human bladder tumor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expressions of NF-kappaB, BCL2-associated X protein (BAX), BCL2-associated death protein (BAD) and BH3-interacting domain death agonist protein (BID) were investigated by performing immunohistochemical staining on 133 archival bladder tissue paraffin blocks; these blocks included 122 transitional cell carcinomas of the urinary bladder and 11 normal bladder mucosae. RESULTS: The expression levels of NF-kappaB were significantly higher in the bladder tumors than those of the normal bladder mucosae (p=0.001). The expression levels of BAX in the superficial and low-grade (grade 1 and 2) bladder tumors were significantly enhanced more than those of the high-grade and invasive cases (p=0.042 and p=0.045, respectively), while the expression levels of BAD in the tumor tissues and low-grade tumors were significantly elevated compared with those of the normal mucosae and high grade tumor (p=0.007 and p=0.048, respectively). But the expressions of BID were not correlated with any pathologic and clinical properties. CONCLUSIONS: The expressions of the NF-kappaB and apoptosis inducing genes such as BAX and BAD are strongly associated with the pathogenesis and clinical properties of bladder tumor. (Korean J Urol 2007;48:483-488)