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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Introduction: Hypoxic cancers are radioresistant, but biomarkers based on expression of multiple genes can identify patients who will benefit from hypoxia modification. Most studies identifying relevant genes exposed cells in culture to 1% oxygen, which activates hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). However, oxygen concentrations in hypoxic tumours are heterogeneous ranging from <0.1%. As lower oxygen levels would likely affect transcriptional responses, we aimed to investigate how gene selection at different oxygen levels affects the genes identified and their prognostic capability. Methods: Four MIBC (J82, T24, UMUC3, HT1376) and two non-MIBC (RT4, RT112) bladder cancer cell lines were exposed to varying oxygen levels (20%, 1%, 0.2% and 0.1% O2) for 24 h and were then harvested and frozen. RNA was extracted and transcriptomes analysed using Clariom S microarrays. Differences in gene expression were investigated. Prognostic and predictive significance of a published 24-gene signature was compared with one generated from genes identified at lower oxygen levels. Results: The number of upregulated genes increased with decreasing O2 level. The number of biological pathways involved also increased. Differences between cell lines dominated those due to hypoxia. Some genes were commonly upregulated in MIBC and NMIBC cells and others increased exclusively in either MIBC or NMIBC cells. The median expression of a published 24-gene bladder cancer hypoxia-associated signature increased with decreasing oxygen levels. Seventy-seven genes were upregulated in at least three cell lines by exposure to 0.1% O2. The median expression of the 77 genes was of borderline prognostic significance in the bladder cancer cohort in the TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas). Five of the seventy-seven genes upregulated by hypoxia were present in the twenty-four-gene bladder hypoxia signature. The median expression of the 5 genes demonstrated identical prognostication to the 24-gene signature but failed to predict benefit from hypoxia modification. Conclusions: The number of genes upregulated by exposure of bladder cancer cells to hypoxia increases as O2 level is decreased from 1% to 0.2% to 0.1%. Differential upregulation of gene expression by MIBC and NMIBC cells and the associated biological pathways may be useful in understanding the genetics of bladder cancer invasiveness. Based on a search of the literature, this is the first study that assessed the expression of genes in bladder cancer using three hypoxic concentration levels to identify biomarkers for disease progression and prognosis among differentially expressed bladder cancer genes.

Details

Title
Gene Expression in Muscle-Invasive and Non-Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Cells Exposed to Hypoxia
Author
Rekaya, Shabbir 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Quiles, Conrado G 1 ; Lane, Brian 1 ; Zeef Leo 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Hoskin, Peter J 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Choudhury Ananya 3 ; West Catharine M. L. 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Smith Tim A. D. 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Division of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M20 4GJ, UK; [email protected] (R.S.); [email protected] (C.G.Q.); [email protected] (B.L.); [email protected] (P.J.H.); [email protected] (A.C.); [email protected] (C.M.L.W.) 
 Bioinformatics Core Facility, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 6PT, UK; [email protected] 
 Division of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M20 4GJ, UK; [email protected] (R.S.); [email protected] (C.G.Q.); [email protected] (B.L.); [email protected] (P.J.H.); [email protected] (A.C.); [email protected] (C.M.L.W.), Christie Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester M20 4BX, UK 
 Division of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M20 4GJ, UK; [email protected] (R.S.); [email protected] (C.G.Q.); [email protected] (B.L.); [email protected] (P.J.H.); [email protected] (A.C.); [email protected] (C.M.L.W.), Nuclear Futures Institute, School of Computer Sciences and Engineering, Bangor LL57 1UT, UK 
First page
2624
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20726694
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3243994262
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.