Expression And Clinical Significance Of C-X-C Chemokine Receptor CXCR6 And Its Ligand CXCL16 In Urothelial Carcinoma Of The Bladder

Object: CXC chemokines and their cognate receptors have been implicated widely in cancer pathogenesis.In certain cancers, expression of CXCL16 and its receptor CXCR6 associated with lymphocyte infiltration, possibly aiding anti-tumour immune response and indicated a better prognosis. In other cancers, CXCL16 and CXCR6 associate with pro-metastatic activity.In the current study, we aimed to characterise the role of CXCR6 and CXCL16 in bladder cancer tissues and analyze the corelationship between the patients’ s clinicopathologic factors and prognosis.Material and Method: To detect the expression of CXCR6 and its cognate ligand chemokine CXCL16 in bladder cancer and normal bladder tissues,immunohistochemical(IHC) staining was performed in 89 cases of bladder cancer tissues and 30 normal bladder tissue,including 20 peritumor tissues and 10 tissues which was resected from the radical cystectomy, partial cystectomy and the normal bladder neck tissues resected from TURP. Kaplan-Merier univariate survival analysis and Log-Rank test was performed to evaluate the prognosis value of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients.Results: Among the 89 cases of bladder cancer tissues,67(67/89) cases showed positively staining of CXCR6,and 65(65/89) cases showed positively staining of CXCL16,respectively.Only 6(6/30) and 3(3/30) cases showed positively staining of CXCR6 and CXCL16 in normal bladder tissues, respectively.(p<0.01,p<0.01).The expression level of CXCR6 was positively correlated with the pathological grade,T stage(p<0.05, p<0.05). Those who showed positive staining of CXCR6 are prone to recurrent and progress shorter than the counterpart(p<0.05,p<0.05).While the expression of CXCL16 showed no statistic significance with any clinicopathologic factors.Conclusion: The expression level of CXCR6/CXCL16 is higher than the normal bladder tissues,which indicated that CXCR6/CXCL16 may play a important role in the carcinogenesis of bladder cancer.And the CXCR6 was correlated with the pathology grade and T stage of bladder cancer,which indicated the CXCR6 plays a vital role in the progression of bladder cancer. Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer patients who posses high expression level of CXCR6 is more likely to recurrent and progress shorter after operation.