E-cadherin and p63 immunoexpression in dysplastic lesions and urothelial carcinomas of the bladder.

In this study, we investigated 30 cases of dysplastic lesions and bladder carcinomas. The lesions presented different degree of differentiation and depth of invasion. The aim of this study was to appreciate the immunoexpression of some proteins, like E-cadherin and p63, which are implicated in the cellular adhesiveness and the normal development of the urothelium, depending on the degree of tumoral differentiation and the depth of invasion. The immunoreactivity of the markers was qualitative and quantitative evaluated. Both markers presented an immunoexpression diminishing with depth of invasion, the carcinomas with muscularis propria invasiveness having a minimum intensity reaction (0 or 1), and a medium percentage of marked cells by 10-50% for E-cadherin, and 30% for p63. The immunostaining intensity for E-cadherin decreased with the tumoral degree of differentiation, the poorly differentiated carcinomas having a reaction with minimum intensity (0 or 1). The p63-immunoexpression was correlated with the degree of differentiation in superficially cases of chorion invasiveness carcinoma. The immunostaining intensity in cases with muscularis propria invasiveness was diminished as the number of epithelial layers becomes bigger, but there was no variation depending on tumoral differentiation. In conclusion, E-cadherin and p63 are implicated in tumoral progression and may be used as a prognostic markers.