Objective: To investigate and compare the expression of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in human bladder cells under the stimulus of Escherichia coli (E. coli) versus that under the stimulus of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG).
Methods: Human bladder cancer cell line T24 was cultured for 1 hour under the stimuli of various doses (bacillus-cell ratio) of E. coli and BCG respectively. The levels of expression of TLR-2 and TLR-4 mRNA in T24 cells were assessed by RT-PCR method.
Results: By comparison with control, there was no difference observed on the expression of either TLR-2 or TLR-4 in T24 cells under the stimulus of E. coli. The expression level of either TLR-2 or TLR-4 was increased under the stimulus of BCG in a dose-dependent manner. The effects reached the highest level when the dose of BCG was 10 bacilli per cell.
Conclusion: There exist different expression patterns of TLRs in bladder transitional cells under the different stimuli of E. coli and BCG respectively.