PURPOSE: Prostatitis is a common condition with a significant effect on quality of life. Even though the etiology of chronic prostatitis remains unclear, certain bacterial infections may play a major role. In recent studies, E. coli, one important etiology of urinary tract infection, was found to mediate invasion into the bladder epithelium after binding uroplakin Ia in the apical membrane of the urinary bladder. Because E. coli is also an important pathogen for bacterial prostatitis, we investigated the uroplakin mRNA expression in micro-dissected mouse prostates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We harvested the urinary bladder, ventral prostate, dorso-lateral prostate, and coagulating gland from 3 male imprinting control region (ICR) mice. The total RNA was extracted, cDNA was prepared, and finally the five target genes--uroplakin Ia, Ib, II, III, and beta-actin were amplified. We also examined the expressed sequence tags (EST) about above four uroplakin genes from mouse EST data. RESULTS: Uroplakin Ia, Ib, II, and III were expressed in the urinary bladder. However, only uroplakin Ia was definitively expressed in the ventral prostate. Uroplakin Ib and II were weakly expressed in the ventral, dorso-lateral, and coagulating prostate. Uroplakin III was not expressed in the prostate tissue. The mouse RNA transcripts in the EST data also showed similar results to uroplakin expression in the prostate. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the mouse ventral prostate may be an adequate locus for acute or chronic bacterial prostatitis study. Further in-vitro bacteriologic studies of the ventral prostate will help reveal the mechanisms of chronic bacterial prostatitis.
Actins ; Animals ; Bacterial Infections ; DNA, Complementary ; Epithelium ; Expressed Sequence Tags ; Humans ; Male ; Membranes ; Mice ; Prostate ; Prostatitis ; Quality of Life ; RNA ; RNA, Messenger ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Tract Infections ; Uroplakin Ia ; Uroplakin Ib ; Uroplakin III ; Uroplakins

A 66-year-old man with a history of multiple transurethral resections for recurrent bladder tumors, staged as Ta according to the International Union Against Cancer staging guidelines, presented with a complaint of dry cough. A round nodule with a diameter of 7.5 cm was detected in the lung by chest computed tomography, and a video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy was performed. Pulmonary metastasis of recurrent bladder cancer was diagnosed by immunohistochemistry staining for the urothelium-specific protein uroplakin Ia. Subsequently, 2 cycles of systemic chemotherapy were administered. Two and a half years after treatment, no recurrence of pulmonary lesions has been detected. A combination of complete resection of pulmonary lesions and systemic chemotherapy may result in a good prognosis for patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
Cough ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Lung ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplasm Staging ; Prognosis ; Recurrence ; Solitary Pulmonary Nodule ; Thorax ; Urinary Bladder ; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms ; Uroplakin Ia