s Bladder Cancer and Stem Cells

Bladder cancer is the second most common malignancy of urinary tract. Normal bladder urothelium is a transitional epithelium which consist of 3-7 layers and three different types of cells. The question is what kind of cells is responsible for bladder cancer development, probably stem cells? Stem cells can be sensitive to changes in their environment including toxic substances related to smoking. These changes within stem cells may potentially induce carcinogenesis by limiting their differentiating potential but expanding their proliferative potential. This process is directly connected with stem cell senescence in which DNA alterations play an important role. Cancer stem cells have become the target in treating various cancers. Tumor initiating cells within bladder cancer have been isolated. It has to be tested what connections are between cancer stem cells and tumor initiating cells. Characteristic markers and proteins may help to identify bladder cancer stem cells and thus early stages of bladder cancer. Moreover, bladder cancer stem cells undergo signaling pathways which play critical role both in normal and cancer stem cells.