The expression of ubiquitin-related domain-like protein 2 in bladder cancer and its effect on proliferation of bladder cancer cells

Abstract

Objective To investigate the ubiquitin-related domain-like protein 2 (UBAC2) in bladder cancer and its effect on proliferation of bladder cancer cells. Methods The real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) and immunostaining were used to test the expression of UBAC2 in bladder cancer and matched normal bladder tissues. The relation between UBAC2 expression and the characteristics of patients was analyzed. The shRNA targeting UBAC2 were designed and transfected into EJ and UMUC3 cell. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and colony formation assays were carried out to detect cell proliferation ability. Results Compared with the normal tissues (2.201±0.826), the expression levels of UBAC2 mRNA was up-regulated in bladder cancer tissues (3.721±2.912, P=0.000). As compared with the SV-HUC-1 (1.000±0.029), the expression of UBAC2 mRNA were significantly up-regulated in EJ (2.273±0.040) and UMUC3 (3.038±0.115) cell (P=0.000). The expression of UBAC2 protein was elevated in bladder cancer tissues. The expression of UBAC2 was significantly associated with the tumor grade (P=0.045), there were no significant associations between UBAC2 expression and gender, age, lymph nodes metastasis, tumor stage and tumor size (P=0.961, 0.641, 1.000, 0.227, 0.426). The CCK-8 assays showed the absorbance of shUBAC2 were significantly lower compared with shNC (P=0.005, 0.004). The colony formation assays showed shUBAC2 inhibited colony formation compared to shNC (P=0.002, 0.005). Conclusion The expression of UBAC2 is up-regulated in bladder cancer tissues, and inhibition of UBAC2 attenuates proliferation of bladder cancer cells. Key words: Ubiquitin-related domain-like protein 2; Bladder cancer; Proliferation