Objective:To investigate the expressions of CD133 in bladder cancerand elucidate the roleof CD133 protein and mRNAin the development of human bladder transitional cell carcinoma(TCCB).Methods:The expression of CD133 in 50 cases of human TCCB tissue and 43 cases of adjacent normal bladder tissue were detected by Immunohistochemistry S-P and Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR)

respectively.The correlation was analysed statistically

between the expression of CD133 protein and mRNA and clinicopathological parameters of human TCCB.Results:The positive rate of CD133 protein and mRNA in malignant specimens was 78.0%(39/50)and 84%(42/50)

respectively

while that in the adjacent normal bladder tissue was 16.28%(7/43)and 13.95%(6/43)

respectively.The expression of CD133 protein and mRNA was significantly different between TCCB tissue and adjacent normal bladder tissue(P<0.01).The further statistical analysis showed that the CD133 protein and mRNA expression was correlated to the pathology grades of BTCC(P<0.05)

but had no correlation to the sex of TCCB(P>0.05).Conclusion:Different expression of CD133 gene is correlated to invasion and metastasis of TCCB.CD133 may be one of the markers for assessment of the progress of the cancer and clinical prognosis for TCBB.