A novel approach to anticancer therapies: peroxisome proliferator activator-receptor-gamma as a new target therapy in the treatment of human urological cancer.

Peroxisome proliferator activator-receptor (PPAR)-gamma is a ligand-activated transcriptional factor belonging to a steroid receptor superfamily. PPAR-gamma plays a role in both adipocyte differentiation and carcinogenesis. Up-date, PPAR-gamma is expressed in various cancer tissues, and PPAR-gamma ligand induces growth arrest of these cancer cells. In this study, we examined the expression of PPAR-gamma in human urological cancer (including renal cell carcinoma, bladder tumor, prostate cancer and testicular cancer) by RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry, and we also examined the effect of PPAR-gamma ligand in these cells by MTT assay, flow cytometry and hoechest staining. PPAR-gamma expression was significantly more extensive and intense in malignant tissues than in normal tissues. PPAR-gamma ligand induced the reduction of malignant cell viability through early apoptosis. These results demonstrated that generated PPAR-gamma in urological cancer cells may play an important role in carcinogensis and become a new target therapy in the treatment of urological cancer.