PURPOSE: We determined whether gene expression profiles in urine sediment could provide noninvasive markers for interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome with and/or without Hunner lesions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fresh catheterized urine was collected and centrifuged from 5 controls, and 5 Hunner lesion-free and 5 Hunner lesion bearing patients. RNA was extracted from pelleted material and quantified by gene expression microarray using the GeneChip® Human Gene ST Array. Three biologically likely hypotheses were tested, including 1) all 3 groups are distinct from each other, 2) controls are distinct from the 2 types combined of patients with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and 3) patients with Hunner lesion-interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome are distinct from controls and patients with nonHunner-lesion interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome combined. For statistical parity an unlikely fourth hypothesis was included, that is patients with nonHunner-lesion interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome are distinct from controls and patients with Hunner lesion-interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome combined.
RESULTS: Analysis supported selective up-regulation of genes in the Hunner lesion interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome group (hypothesis 3), which were primarily associated with inflammation. The inflammatory profile was statistically similar to that reported in a prior Hunner lesion interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome bladder biopsy study.
CONCLUSIONS: Gene expression analysis of urine sediment was feasible in this pilot study. Expression profiles failed to discriminate nonHunner-lesion interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome from controls and they are unlikely to be a noninvasive marker for nonHunner-lesion interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome. In contrast, patients with Hunner lesion had increased proinflammatory gene expression in urine sediment, similar to that in a prior microarray study of bladder biopsies. If these preliminary results are validated in future research, they may lead to a noninvasive biomarker for Hunner lesion-interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome.
Written by:
Blalock EM, Korrect GS, Stromberg AJ, Erickson DR. Are you the author?
Department of Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
Reference: J Urol. 2012 Feb;187(2):725-32. Epub 2011 Dec 16.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22177197
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