Objective To evaluate the effect of rapamycin on proliferation and cell cycle of human bladder cancer cell line 5637. Methods Total?ly 5637 cells were maintained in RPMI 1640 containing 10%fetal bovine serum,100 U/mL penicillin and 100μg/mL streptomycin for adherent cul?ture. Cells were grown at 37℃in a 5%CO2 incubator. The 5637 cells were treated with various concentrations of rapamycin solution(50 nmol/L, 100 nmol/L,200 nmol/L,and 400 nmol/L). The control group was daily treated with single RPMI 1640 without medication. The growth repression rate for 5637 cells was evaluated by MTT. Flow cytometry was used to investigate the effect of rapamycin of different concentrations on cell cycle of 5637 cells. Results Compared to the control group,rapamycin can inhibit the proliferation of 5637 cells in a concentration and time dependent manner. Rapamycin inhibited 5637 cells at G0/G1 thus inhibiting cell proliferation but not inducing apoptosis. Conclusion Rapamycin inhibited growth of 5637 bladder carcinoma cells and arrested cell cycle at G0/G1,indicating that mammalian target of rapamycin may play an important role in proliferation of 5637 cells and act as a new tumor therapeutic target in patients with bladder cancer.

Objective To examine the galectin-3 expression in bladder cancer and explore the relationship between the galectin-3 expres-sion and the clinicalpathological characteristics of bladder cancer.Methods Immunohistochemical streptavidin-peroxidase（S-P）method was employed to examine the expression of galectin-3 in 45 bladder cancer tissues and 6 normal bladder tissues.The relationship between galectin-3 expression and the clinicopathological parameters was analyzed in bladder cancers.Results The positive rate of galectin-3 ex-pression in bladder cancer was 62.2%,significantly higher than that in 6 normal bladder tissues（P 〈 0.05）.The positive rates of galectin-3 expression in primary cases and recurrent cases were 60% and 70% respectively without significant difference（P 〉 0.05）.The up-regulated expression of galectin-3 was positively correlated with the pathological degree and clinical stage of bladder cancer（P 〈 0.05）.Conclusion Galectin-3 expression is up-regulated in bladder cancer and its increased expression is useful for diagnosis of bladder cancer.Additionally,it could be used as an important index to evaluate the pathological degree and clinical stage of bladder cancer.