Gene expression profiling of inflammatory bladder disorders

Inflammation underlies all major bladder pathologies including malignancy and represents a defense reaction to injury caused by physical damage, chemical substances, micro-organisms or other agents. During acute inflammation, activation of specific molecular pathways leads to an increased expression of selected genes whose products attack the insult, but ultimately should protect the tissue from the noxious stimulus. However, once the stimulus ceases, gene-expression should return to basal levels to avoid tissue damage, fibrosis, loss of function, and chronic inflammation. If this down-regulation does not occur, tissue fibrosis occurs as a serious complication of chronic inflammation. Although sensory nerve and most cells products are known to be key parts of the inflammatory puzzle, other key molecules are constantly being described that have a role in bladder inflammation. Therefore, as the database describing the repertoire of inflammatory mediators implicated in bladder inflammation increases, the central mechanisms by which injury can induce inflammation, cell damage, and repair often becomes less rather than more clear. To make sense of the vast knowledge of the genes involved in the inflammatory response may require analysis of the patterns of change and the elucidation of gene networks far more than definition of additional members of inflammatory cascades. This review discuss the appropriate use of microarray technology, which promises to solve both of these problems as well as identifying key molecules and mechanisms involved in the transition between acute and chronic inflammation.