Evaluating the expression of OCT4 and CD133 as cancer stem cell markers in transitional cell carcinomas

Background: Treatment failure, recurrence, and metastasis in bladder cancer are attributed to a subset of tumor cells expressing cancer stem cell (CSC) markers. This study aimed to explore the expression levels and clinical significance of putative CSC markers OCT4 and CD133 in bladder cancer.Materials & Methods: Tissue microarray-based immunohistochemical analysis was applied to investigate the expression patterns of potential CSC markers OCT4 and CD133 in bladder cancer samples. The correlation between the expressions of each marker with clinico-pathological parameters was then analyzed.Results: There was a significant association between OCT4 expression and TNM stage of bladder cancer (P<0.001). Our analysis demonstrated a significant association between intensity of staining and presence of lamina propria and muscularis propria invasion (P=0.02 and P=0.02, respectively), whereas a relative inverse correlation was found between CD133 expression with lamina propria invasion (P=0.051) and muscularis propria invasion (P=0.07). Conclusions: The correlation of OCT4 but not CD133, with invasiveness of bladder cancer revealed that OCT4 can be considered as a key regulator of tumor progression, aggressive behavior, and metastasis, therefore OCT4 can be a potential marker for targeted therapy of bladder cancer.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cancer stem cells ، OCT4 ، CD133 ، Bladder cancer ، Tissue microarray