Background: Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Gene expression profiling using microarray technologies improves the understanding of cancer biology. The aim of this study was to determine the gene expression profile in Egyptian bladder cancer patients.
Materials and methods: Samples from 29 human bladder cancers and adjacent non-neoplastic tissues were analyzed by cDNA microarray, with hierarchical clustering and multidimensional analysis.
Results: Five hundred and sixteen genes were differentially expressed of which SOS1, HDAC2, PLXNC1, GTSE1, ULK2, IRS2, ABCA12, TOP3A, HES1, and SRP68 genes were involved in 33 different pathways. The most frequently detected genes were: SOS1 in 20 different pathways; HDAC2 in 5 different pathways; IRS2 in 3 different pathways. There were 388 down-regulated genes. PLCB2 was involved in 11 different pathways, MDM2 in 9 pathways, FZD4 in 5 pathways, p15 and FGF12 in 4 pathways, POLE2 in 3 pathways, and MCM4 and POLR2E in 2 pathways. Thirty genes showed significant differences between transitional cell cancer (TCC) and squamous cell cancer (SCC) samples. Unsupervised cluster analysis of DNA microarray data revealed a clear distinction between low and high grade tumors. In addition 26 genes showed significant differences between low and high tumor stages, including fragile histidine triad, Ras and sialyltransferase 8 (alpha) and 16 showed significant differences between low and high tumor grades, like methionine adenosyl transferase II, beta.
Conclusions: The present study identified some genes, that can be used as molecular biomarkers or target genes in Egyptian bladder cancer patients.