biological significance of laminin and fibronectin in bladder cancer

ABSTRACT

Laminin [LnP1] and fibronectin [Fn] were estimated in the sera of 27 cases with bladder carcinoma of different histopathological types Papillary superficial transitional cell carcinoma [TCC] [nine cases], invasive TCC [12 cases] and squamous cell carcinoma [six cases]. Only 18 patients were followed up after treatment. Ten normal individuals and 12 cases suffering from benign bladder lesions were included in the study for comparison. Serum LnP1 was significantly higher compared with controls in all groups except in the benign bladder lesions group. It was noticed that a progressive increase in the mean value of serum LnP1 accompanied a change in the grade of the disease. Tissue detection for LnP1 by immunoperoxidase revealed a continuous intact basement membrane [BM]. BM loss was directly proportional to the grade of bladder carcinoma. Serum Fn values revealed no significant difference compared with controls in all the studied groups. Fn immunoperoxidase staining showed negative or weak results in all the studied groups. Serum LnP1 may be a diagnostic and prognostic parameter in TCC after the exclusion of other diseases that increase its expression. It may also be used for monitoring and detecting the recurrence