Impaired gap junction formation and intercellular calcium signaling in urinary bladder cancer cells can be improved by Gö6976.

Purpose: Calcium wave propagation and connexin 26, 32 and 43 expression were studied in normal and malignant urothelial cells.Materials and Methods: Human urothelial cell cultures were established from tissue biopsies obtained from three healthy control persons and compared to human transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) cell line 5637. Fluo-3 was used to study intercellular calcium signaling in urothelial cells. The cells were stimulated mechanically in the presence of inhibitors of gap-junctional or ATP-mediated communication to determine which pathways are operative in intercellular calcium signaling. In addition, Go6976 was used to determine the effects of PKC α and βI inhibition on intercellular calcium signaling.Results: In normal urothelial cells, the primary pathway for intercellular calcium mediated cell signaling was gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC), but the paracrine ATP-mediated signaling was also operative. In 5637 TCC cells, GJIC and ATP-mediated signaling routes were altered whe...