Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 22, 2025

The Use of Reverse Phase Protein Arrays RPPA to Explore Protein Expression Variation within Individual Renal Cell Cancers
Published on: January 22, 2013
Differential Expression of the Androgen Receptor, Splice Variants and Relaxin 2 in Renal Cancer
Joanna Bialek1, Maria Piwonka1, Felix Kawan1
1Medical Faculty of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, University Clinic and Outpatient Clinic for Urology, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany.
Background:
The role of the androgen receptor (AR) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is unclear. We aimed to analyze the expression of AR and its splice variants (SVs) and their correlation with relaxin 2 (RLN2) and cytokines in RCC.
Methods:
We investigated the expression of RLN2 and AR variants in 25 clear cell RCC (ccRCC) and 9 papillary (pRCC) tumor tissues and the corresponding controls using quantitative PCR and serum RLN2, testosterone and cytokine levels in matched samples using ELISA and chemiluminescent immunometric assay, respectively.
Results:
ccRCC tissues but not pRCC tissues more frequently expressed AR and the SVs than did normal tissues. All pRCC samples expressed more AR than did ccRCC samples. The highest expression of all AR variants except AR-V12 was found in low-stage tumors, with dominant expression of AR-V7. In males in the ccRCC cohort, the expression of AR-FL, AR-V1 and AR-V3 was significantly correlated with that of RLN2. The secretion pattern of proinflammatory IL-6 was higher in ccRCC than in pRCC.
Conclusions:
The results highlight additional molecular differences between ccRCC and pRCC, suggesting the influence of external factors on the whole kidney or genetic predispositions to developing certain types of renal cancer, and may support further pathological analysis and studies of targeted hormone therapy.
Related Concept Videos
RNA Splicing
Alternative RNA Splicing
There are five types of alternative RNA splicing that vary in the ways the pre-mRNA segments are removed or retained in the mature mRNA. The first...

