Expression of Caspase-3 in bladder transitional carcinoma and its significance

Objective: To investigate the expression of Caspase-3 to evaluate the effect on the tumorigenesis and progression in normal bladder mucous membrane and bladder transitional carcinoma(BTCC).Methods: The immunohistochemistry (S-P method) was used to determine the expression of Caspase-3 in 46 case of BTCC and 10 normal bladder mucous membranes.Results: The protein expression level of Caspase-3 in BTCC(47.83%) was significantly lower than that in normal bladder samples(90.00%)(P<0.01).Caspase-3 expression level was correlated with the grading of BTCC(P<0.01),but had no significant correlation with clinical staging(P<0.01).Conclusions: Decrease of expression of Caspase-3 may play an important role in the tumorigenesis of bladder carcinoma.