A Study on Metabolic Health Status as a Risk Factor for Female Bladder Cancer Incidence: Analysis From the National Health Checkups Database of Korea

Purpose: This study investigated metabolic health status as a risk factor for female bladder cancer using the National Health Checkups databases of Korea.Materials and Methods: We defined obesity if body mass index was ≥25 kg/m2 and normal weight as <25 kg/m2. Metabolic unhealthiness was defined when 3 or more criteria of metabolic syndrome were met. A total of 11,461,618 women who took National health Checkups between 2009 and 2012 were categorized as metabolic healthy normal weight (MHNW), metabolic unhealthy normal weight (MuHNW), metabolic health obese (MHO), and metabolic unhealthy obese (MuHO). Multivariable-adjusted Cox regression was done to analyze the hazard ratio of bladder cancer.Results: The mean age was 48±11.55 years and body mass index was 23.19±2.13 kg/m2. During 5.4±1.1 years of follow-up, 3,893 patients were newly diagnosed with bladder cancer. Compared to MHNW group, the hazard ratio of MuHNW group and MuHO group were 1.237 and 1.288, respectively, while 0.997 in the MHO group. As the number of metabolic unhealthy criteria increased, the cumulative incidence of bladder cancer increased.Conclusions: As a result of a large-scale study conducted on the female population in Korea, the risk of bladder cancer increased with metabolic unhealthiness. Even with normal weight, if metabolically unhealthy, the risk of bladder cancer increased. The greater the degree of metabolic unhealthiness, the higher the risk of bladder cancer. Education on metabolic healthiness concerning female bladder cancer is necessary.

Species-Level Resolution of Female Bladder Microbiota from 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing

Accurate species-level identification from culture-independent techniques is of importance for microbial niches that are less well characterized, such as that of the bladder. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, a common culture-independent way to identify bacteria, is often critiqued for lacking species-level resolution. Here, we extensively evaluate classification schemes for species-level bacterial annotation of 16S amplicon data from bladder bacteria.

The Bladder Is a Novel Target of Developmental Polychlorinated Biphenyl Exposure Linked to Increased Inflammatory Cells in the Bladder of Young Mice

Bladder inflammation is associated with several lower urinary tract symptoms that greatly reduce quality of life, yet contributing factors are not completely understood. Environmental chemicals are plausible mediators of inflammatory reactions within the bladder. Here, we examine whether developmental exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) leads to changes in immune cells within the bladder of young mice. Female mice were exposed to an environmentally relevant mixture of PCBs through gestation and lactation, and bladders were collected from offspring at postnatal day (P) 28–31. We identify several dose- and sex-dependent PCB effects in the bladder. The lowest concentration of PCB (0.1 mg/kg/d) increased CD45+ hematolymphoid immune cells in both sexes. While PCBs had no effect on CD79b+ B cells or CD3+ T cells, PCBs (0.1 mg/kg/d) did increase F4/80+ macrophages particularly in female bladder. Collagen density was also examined to determine whether inflammatory events coincide with changes in the stromal extracellular matrix. PCBs (0.1 mg/kg/d) decreased collagen density in female bladder compared to control. PCBs also increased the number of cells undergoing cell division predominantly in male bladder. These results implicate perturbations to the immune system in relation to PCB effects on the bladder. Future study to define the underlying mechanisms could help understand how environmental factors can be risk factors for lower urinary tract symptoms.