Paigen B, Yarfitz S, Tabron D
Cancer Res. 1984 Aug;44(8):3624-6.
Studies showing that bladder cancer patients have unusually high levels of urinary beta-glucuronidase and arylsulfatases A and B led to the suggestion that these urinary enzymes may participate in bladder cancer etiology. An alternative explanation of the high levels of these urinary enzymes in bladder cancer patients is that the disease itself causes the elevation. Since the levels of these enzymes are genetically determined, measuring these enzymes in healthy identical twins of bladder cancer patients can test whether high enzyme levels occurred prior to bladder cancer. Five healthy identical cotwins of bladder cancer patients, together with matched controls, were measured for urinary beta-glucuronidase, arylsulfatases A and B, and two other lysosomal enzymes as controls, alpha- and beta-galactosidases. The mean levels of all five enzymes were not very different in the cotwins and controls, suggesting that high levels of urinary enzymes observed in bladder cancer patients are a consequence of disease rather than occurring prior to disease and contributing to its etiology.
研究表明，膀胱癌患者尿液中的β-葡萄糖醛酸酶以及芳基硫酸酯酶A和B水平异常高，这使人认为这些尿液酶可能参与膀胱癌的病因。对膀胱癌患者尿液中这些酶水平高的另一种解释是，疾病本身导致了其水平升高。由于这些酶的水平是由基因决定的，因此对膀胱癌患者的健康同卵双胞胎进行这些酶的测量，可以检验酶水平升高是否发生在患膀胱癌之前。对5名膀胱癌患者的健康同卵双胞胎以及匹配的对照组进行了尿液β-葡萄糖醛酸酶、芳基硫酸酯酶A和B的测量，并测量了另外两种作为对照的溶酶体酶，即α-半乳糖苷酶和β-半乳糖苷酶。双胞胎和对照组中所有这五种酶的平均水平差异不大，这表明在膀胱癌患者中观察到的尿液酶水平高是疾病的结果，而不是在疾病之前就出现并导致其病因。
