No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Micturition requires the precise reciprocal function of the urinary bladder and urethral outlet. Perhaps due to this degree of precision, micturition is prone to dysfunction with injury or disease. One such disease, interstitial cystitis (IC)/painful bladder syndrome (PBS), is characterized by urinary urgency, frequency and pelvic pain. Inflammation has been implicated as a factor in IC/PBS. The overall hypothesis of this project is that urinary bladder inflammation induces expression of inflammatory mediators and changes neurotrophin receptor expression that contribute to functional changes in the urinary bladder. Using a well-characterized rat model of cyclophosphamide (CYP)-induced urinary bladder inflammation, the expression and function of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), a known inflammatory enzyme, and the p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR), involved in neurotrophin signaling, were examined in micturition reflex pathways using neuroanatomical, biochemical, molecular and physiological techniques. Although COX-2 expression is increased in urinary bladder and involved in bladder hyperreflexia after CYP-induced cystitis, the localization and time course of upregulation was not known. We hypothesized increased COX-2 expression in specific tissue compartments (urothelium or smooth muscle) of the urinary bladder with CYPinduced inflammation. Western blotting for COX-2 showed a significant increase in COX-2 expression in both detrusor and urothelium/suburothelium, with the greatest increase in the urothelium/suburothelium. Immunostaining showed increased COX-2 staining in suburothelium with cystitis, co-localized with CD86, a marker for dendritic cells and macrophages. Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been implicated in inflammation, increased voiding frequency and altered sensation in urinary bladder. The specific NGF tyrosine kinase receptor, TrkA, is increased in bladder afferent cells with CYP. NGF also binds p75NTR. The second goals were to examine the expression and functional role of p75NTR in urinary bladder pathways in control and CYP-treated rats. We hypothesized that p75NTR is constitutively expressed in micturition pathways and upregulated with cystitis. With cystitis, p75NTR expression was increased in lumbosacral spinal cord and in bladder afferent cells in dorsal root ganglia. Western blotting for p75NTR showed increased expression in whole urinary bladder with cystitis. Based on bladder function effects of TrkA blockade with cystitis, we hypothesized that p75NTR blockade in the urinary bladder would also decrease bladder hyperreflexia with cystitis. The functional role of p75NTR was studied by intravesical blockade by immunoneutralization with a monoclonal antibody to p75NTR and by PD90780, known to block NGF-p75NTR binding. Both forms of p75NTR blockade significantly decreased bladder capacity in control and CYP-treated rats. Changes in micturition and threshold pressure, and non-voiding contractions were also demonstrated. In conclusion, these dissertation studies demonstrate that CYP-induced bladder inflammation alters expression of inflammatory mediators and neurotrophin receptors in micturition pathways. This altered expression can affect overall urinary bladder function.

Three species of the carnivorous bladderwort Utricularia (U. uliginosa, U. uniflora and U. gibba) were studied in the field to determine the fauna content or prey, within their bladder-traps. The immediate soil/water environment was also sampled to determine the fauna present, in order to enable comparison between the prey fauna and the surrounding fauna. Comparison of the trap fauna with the soil/water fauna revealed evidence of selectivity in trapping: the trap fauna were not simply a random sample of the soil/water fauna. A glasshouse experiment was designed to determine whether the terrestrial bladderwort species U. uliginosa gained any growth advantage from carnivory. Three organism treatments were factorially combined with three Nitrogen levels. The advantage to plants of trapping meiofauna was apparent at the two lower N-levels, but not at the highest N-level. The nitrogen treatments did not confer any significant advantage on plant growth for leaf and trap numbers or stolon length. Nitrogen level did however have a significant effect on leaf area at harvest 2, with plants in the middle nitrogen level having more leaf area than plants in the lower and higher nitrogen levels / Master of Science (Hons)

Epithelial membrane protein 2(EMP2), a growth arrest specific-3/peripheral myelin protein-22(GAS3/PMP22) family member, is a tetraspan protein. In prior study identified EMP2 in endometrial cancer was an oncogene, but in B-cell lymphoma was a tumor suppressor gene. The effects of EMP2 on various cancer cell lines precise molecular mechanisms are not clear until now. We observed EMP2 was down-regulated following the progressive grades of bladder cancer cell lines. So, we clone the EMP2 full-length cDNA into the pEGFP-N3 vector as an tool. Then, we overexpressed EMP2 in bladder cancer cell line J82 cells and knockdown EMP2 by shEMP2 in bladder cancer cell line RT4 cells in order to examine its effects on functions of cells like proliferation, cycle , apoptosis and metastasis. Conclusion, we can get cell proliferation of EMP2-overexprssed cells were decreased through arresting G2/M phase of cell cycle. On the other hand, knockdown of EMP2 in RT4 cells increased cell proliferation. Moreover, the ability of migration were decreased by EMP2 in both J82 and RT4 cells.

Bladder cancer is the second most common genitourinary tumor and is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. To find the noninvasive tumor marker for bladder cancer is still a challenge. Recently, the circulating cell-free DNA had been used for detection of some tumors. However, most of these studies selected the blood sample as the free DNA source. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and evaluate the more noninvasive method and tumor marker for bladder cancer detection, especially for the cell-free DNA. Three directions were addressed as followed: 1). urine cell-free DNA makers such as creatinine-adjusted cell-free DNA concentration, 2). DNA integrity (DNA length) and 3). Promoter hypermethylation for DNA repair genes. First, creatinine-adjusted urine cell-free DNA concentration was quantified via real time PCR. The real time PCR-based detection is based on detection large fragment cell-free DNA. Real time PCR-based urine cell-free DNA concentration of bladder cancer patients was higher than controls. Mean concentrations of 36 bladder cancer patients and 93 controls which detected by real time PCR were 14.98 and 1.07 pg/

Thesis (M.Med.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-68).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-88). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-88). Also available on the Internet.