CORRELATION BETWEEN TRIP13 EXPRESSION AND CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BLADDER CANCER AND ITS EFFECT ON THE BIOLOGICAL BEHAVIOR OF BLADDER CANCER CELLS

Xianduo Li^{1, 2, 3}, Guanbao Tang^{2, 3}, Xuewen Guo^{2, 3}, Tongyi Men^{2, 3, *}

¹School of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, PR China - ²Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Jinan 250014, PR China - ³Department of Urology, Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan 250014, PR China

Objective: To investigate the correlation between the expression of thyroid hormone receptor interactor 13 (TRIP13) and the clinicopathological characteristics of bladder cancer, along with the influence of TRIP13 on the biological behavior of bladder cancer cells. 

Methods: From January 2013 to February 2015, 38 samples of bladder cancer tissue were selected for inclusion in this study from those that were frozen in our hospital, along with 18 samples of normal bladder mucosa from patients in our hospital who had undergone surgery for benign diseases during the same time period. An immunohistochemical method was employed to detect the expression of TRIP13 in the bladder cancer tissues and the normal bladder mucosa tissues, and to analyze the correlation between its expression level and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of the bladder cancer patients. At the same time, the human bladder cancer cell line T24 was collected for routine cultivation; its logarithmic growth phase was randomly divided into a blank control group, a negative control group, and a siRNA group. Small interfering RNA against TRIP13 were added to the cells in the siRNA group; they were then transfected with liposomes and introduced into T24 cells. The negative control group was transfected with irrelevant siRNA. All three groups of T24 cells were implanted in 6-well plates, at a density of 5×105/well, one day before transfection. The next day, the cells were transfected when the degree of cell fusion reached 70%; the serum and antibiotics were replaced 5 hours later. The three groups of T24 cells’ clone formation rates, migration distances, and cell proliferation inhibition rates were compared at 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 96 h. 

Results: The positive expression rate of TRIP13 in the bladder cancer tissues was found to be 60.53% (23/38), significantly higher than that of TRIP13 in the normal bladder mucosa tissues, at 27.78% (5/18; P<0.05). The expression level of TRIP13 was related to the depth of invasion, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage in patients with bladder cancer (P<0.05), while it was unrelated to the age, sex, and pathological grade of the patients (P>0.05). The 5-year survival rate of TRIP13-positive-expression patients was found to be 30.43% (7/23), which was significantly lower than that of the TRIP13-negative-expression patients, at 60% (9/15, P<0.05). At 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, and 96 h, the proliferation inhibition rate of T24 cells in the siRNA group was significantly higher than that in the blank control group, while the inhibition rate of T24 cell proliferation in the blank control group was not statistically different to that in the negative control group (P>0.05). The cloning rate of T24 cells in the siRNA group was significantly lower than that in the blank control group, while there was no statistically significant difference between the blank control group and the negative control group in this regard (P>0.05). The migration distance of T24 cells in the siRNA group was significantly lower than that in the blank control group, while the blank control group was not different from the negative control group to a statistically significant degree (P>0.05). 

Conclusion: The expression level of TRIP13 in bladder cancer tissue is elevated, and its expression level is closely related to the depth of infiltration, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage of the patient. TRIP13 is expected to become an important reference index for use to evaluate the prognosis of bladder cancer patients. In addition, TRIP13 has been found to play an important role in the behavior of bladder cancer cells; reducing its expression, therefore, holds the potential to significantly inhibit the proliferation, migration, and clonal formation of bladder cancer cells.