Study of Arachidonic Acid Pathway in Human Bladder Tumor

Recent epidemiological studies and animal experiments have demonstrated that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) reduce the incidence of colorectal carcinoma. Cyclooxygenase (COX) is the principal target of NSAIDs. COX is the first oxidase in the process of prostaglandin production from arachidonic acid. COX enzyme may be involved in the initiation and/or the promotion of tumorigenesis due to NSAIDs inhibition of COX. Lipoxygenase (LOX) is also an initial enzyme in the pathway for producing leukotrienes from arachidonic acid. Similar to COX, LOX enzyme may also be involved in the initiation and/or promotion of tumorigenesis. Peroxisome proliferator activator-receptor (PPAR)-γ is a ligand-activated transcriptional factor belonging to the steroid receptor superfamily. PPAR-γ plays a role in both adipocyte differentiation and tumorigenesis. PPAR-γ is one target for cell growth modulation of NSAIDs. In this review, we report the expression of COX-2, LOX and PPAR-γ in human bladder tumor tissues as well as the effects of COX-2 and LOX inhibitors and PPAR-γ ligand.