Role of cholecystokinin receptors in carcinoma gallbladder.

Cancer of the Gallbladder commonly occurs in elderly population and is fifth common can-cer in women. The aetiology of cancer gallbladder is not well understood. The present study was conducted to compare expression of the CCK receptors in the blood and gallbladder tis-sue in cases of cholelithiasis, cancer gallbladder and normal gallbladder. Forty- nine cases comprising 22 cancer gallbladders, 19 cholelithiasis and 8 normal gallbladders obtained from patients operated for biliary trauma or Whipple’s procedure. RNA extraction and cDNA formation for CCK-A and CCK-B receptors were carried out. Real Time PCR was performed. Both CCK-A and CCK-B receptors were expressed in all tissues and blood samples studied in the normal, cholelithiasis or carcinoma gallbladder. Although there was higher expression of CCK-A receptor in the cholelithiasis group as compared to normal group and decreased expression of CCK-A receptors in the carcinoma gallbladder group as compared to normal group yet this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: This is a preliminary study reported a comparative expression of cholecycstolinin receptors of gallbladder tissues and blood samples from patients with normal gallbladder, cholelithia-sis, and carcinoma gall bladder. The resulted insignificant data could possibly be due to small sample size. So far previous reports are not available to compare our results.