Differential expression of keratin 5 gene in non-tumorigenic and tumorigenic rat bladder cell lines

In this study, we attempted to find a gene or genes which were differentially expressed between a non-tumorigenic rat bladder cell line and a highly tumorigenic/metastatic bladder carcinoma cell line that was derived from the former after treatment in vitro with N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. We cloned a rat keratin 5 cDNA by a differential hybridization technique and found that all of the non-tumorigenic cells (7/7) and normal bladder tissue expressed keratin 5, but most of the tumorigenic cells (8/10) did not express keratin 5. Furthermore, in a spontaneously transformed cell line, keratin 5 expression was lost during the transformation process. These results suggest that loss of keratin 5 expression is closely associated with acquisition of a tumorigenic phenotype by rat bladder non-tumorigenic cells.