Members of the laboratory group that contributed to this research

Establishment and characterization of human bladder cancer cell lines BexBra1, BexBra2, and BexBra4 and androgen-independent human prostate cancer cell lines, PcBra1, PcBra2, and PcBra3

One of the main obstacles for understanding biological events involved in cancer is the lack of experimental models for in vitro studies. There exists a limited number of prostate cancer (PC) and bladder cancer (BC) cell lines, and the majority of the available cell lines are originated from metastatic tumors mostly acquired from American Tissue Cell Culture and obtaining these cells involves importation which can be complicated due to costs and the bureaucratic process. Also it is well known that there are ethnic differences between populations concerning the behavior of tumors and the research based on cell lines derived from Brazilians should provide insight into these differences. Our aim was to develop tumor cell lines from primary PC and BC. PC cell lines were derived from three patients, who underwent radical prostatectomy for prostate adenocarcinoma in the period of August and November, 2006 and BC cell lines were derived from three patients who underwent radical cystectomy for BC from January 2006 to August 2007 at our institution. Immunohistochemical analyses were performed to confirm the epithelial differentiation and the prostate or urothelial nature of the cells, and genetic aberrations were studied using FISH and karyotyping.  These cell lines may be helpful for dissecting and understanding the genetic and epigenetic aspects that trigger the progression of PC and BC. Moreover, the development of a Brazilian representative of the disease will allow us to investigate the potential inter-racial differences of malignancy-associated phenotypes in prostate and bladder cancer.  Camila B. Piantino, Juliana M. Sousa-Canavez, Victor Srougi, Fernanda Salvadori, Raphael Kato, Pedro R. Ayres, Miguel Srougi, Luiz Heraldo Camara-Lopes, Gilka Jorge Figaro Gattás, Cintia Fridman, Fernando de Toledo, Isaque Santana, Kátia Ramos Moreira Leite.  Establishment and characterization of human bladder cancer cell lines BexBra1, BexBra2, and BexBra4.  In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Animal 46:131-139, 2010 and Camila B. Piantino , Juliana M. Sousa-Canavez, Marta Bellodi-Privato , Victor Srougi, Luiz Heraldo Camara-Lopes, Gilka Jorge Figaro Gattás, Fernanda de Toledo Gonçalves, Cintia Fridman, Katia R. M. Leite.  Establishment and characterization of androgen-independent human prostate cancer cell lines, PcBra1, PcBra2, and PcBra3.  In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology-Animal 46:123-130, 2010.