Saika T, Tsushima T, Nasu Y, Akebi N, Noda M, Kobashi K, Matsumura Y, Ohmori H
Department of Urology, Okayama University Medical School.
Nihon Hinyokika Gakkai Zasshi. 1992 May;83(5):636-42. doi: 10.5980/jpnjurol1989.83.636.
Metallothionein (MT) is a low molecular-metal binding protein with multiple biological functions. Recently, MT has been implicated as a factor involved in resistance to anticancer drugs, which presumably inactivates anticancer drugs, including cisplatin, and doxorubicin. In this report, we investigated the relationship of MT expression with the clinical features in bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma. In 35 cases of bladder cancer, 10 cases of renal cell carcinoma and 3 cases of normal mucosa of bladder, the expression of MT was immunohistologically examined by avidinebiotin-peroxidase (ABC) staining of paraffin-embedded tissue specimens with anti-MT antibody. Intense MT expression was noted in all cases of normal mucosa of bladder. MT was detected in 10 of 35 cases of bladder cancer, with the incidence of MT expression being significantly higher increases with lower pathological tumor grade. MT was detected in 8 of 10 cases of renal cell carcinoma, and all of the their normal renal tubules showed more intense staining. A number of hypotheses can be proposed from these observations. First, our observation of decreased MT expression in poorly differentiated carcinomas, which are the more proliferating tumors, this suggests correlation of MT expression with proliferative status of cancer. Second, the higher incidence of MT expression in renal cell carcinoma than in bladder cancer may suggest that it is a factor responsible for the lower efficacy of chemo-therapy in renal cell carcinoma than in bladder cancer.
金属硫蛋白（MT）是一种具有多种生物学功能的低分子金属结合蛋白。最近，MT被认为是参与抗癌药物耐药性的一个因素，它可能使包括顺铂和阿霉素在内的抗癌药物失活。在本报告中，我们研究了MT表达与膀胱癌和肾细胞癌临床特征之间的关系。对35例膀胱癌、10例肾细胞癌和3例膀胱正常黏膜组织标本，用抗MT抗体通过石蜡包埋组织标本的抗生物素蛋白-生物素-过氧化物酶（ABC）染色进行MT表达的免疫组织化学检测。在所有膀胱正常黏膜病例中均观察到MT强烈表达。在35例膀胱癌中有10例检测到MT，MT表达的发生率随病理肿瘤分级降低而显著升高。在10例肾细胞癌中有8例检测到MT，并且它们所有的正常肾小管染色更强。从这些观察结果可以提出许多假设。首先，我们观察到在分化差的癌（即增殖性更强的肿瘤）中MT表达降低，这表明MT表达与癌症的增殖状态相关。其次，肾细胞癌中MT表达的发生率高于膀胱癌，这可能表明它是肾细胞癌化疗疗效低于膀胱癌的一个原因。
