Urothelium covers the inner surfaces of the renal pelvis, ureter, bladder, and prostatic urethra. Although morphologically similar, the urothelia in these anatomic locations differ in their embryonic origin and lineages of cellular differentiation, as reflected in their different uroplakin content, expandability during micturition, and susceptibility to chemical carcinogens. Previously thought ...

The luminal surface of mouse urothelium in contact with the urine is almost entirely covered with plaques consisting of uroplakin-containing particles that form p6 hexagonal crystals with a center-to-center distance of 16 nm. A combination of quick-freeze/deep-etch images and our previous negative staining data indicate that the head domain of the uroplakin particle, which is exposed without an...

Urinary tract infections are the second most common infectious disease in humans and are predominantly caused by uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC). A majority of UPEC isolates express the type 1 pilus adhesin, FimH, and cell culture and murine studies demonstrate that FimH is involved in invasion and apoptosis of urothelial cells. FimH initiates bladder pathology by binding to the uroplakin receptor...

Despite the fact that bladder epithelium has many interesting biological features and is a frequent site of carcinoma formation, relatively little is known about its biochemical differentiation. We have shown recently that a 47 kDa glycoprotein, uroplakin III (UPIII), in conjunction with uroplakins I (27 kDa) and II (15 kDa), forms the asymmetric unit membrane (AUM)--a highly specialized biomem...

Although significant progress has recently been made in culturing mammalian urothelial cells, relatively little is known about their biochemical differentiation. In this paper, we assessed the differentiation state of cultured bovine urothelial cells by analyzing their keratins and a cell surface marker, uroplakin I. Urothelial cells were serially cultured either in a serum-free medium, or in a...

PURPOSE To compare human urothelial and smooth muscle cells attachment and proliferation using three different matrices; poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA), PLGA/collagen and human amniotic membrane (hAM). MATERIALS AND METHODS Human urothelial and smooth muscle cells were cultured and examined for expression of urothelium (pancytokeratin and uroplakin III) and smooth muscle cells [desmin an...