The Expression of Toll-Like Receptors (Tlrs) in Testicular Cancer: A Case Control Study

Background: it has been suggested that malfunction of immune system may causes testicular cancer. recently, our understanding of innate immune system has been expanded, by discovery of “toll-like receptors” (tlrs). some studies have shown that polymorphisms of tlr2 and 4 may affect on the risk of cancer. also, the role of tlrs 3 and 9 have been shown in apoptosis and metastasis of cancer cells in animal models. objective: little information is available about the influence of innate immunity on testicular malignancy. therefore, expression of tlrs 2, 3, 4 and 9 as main components of innate immunity has been investigated in this study. materials and methods: in this case control study, tlrs gene expression was examined by rt-pcr in normal testis and testicular cancer tissues. real time quantitative pcr (q-pcr) analysis was used to compare the relative expression of tlrs between the samples. results: mrnas of tlr 2, 3, 4 and 9 were expressed in all normal and cancer samples. q-pcr reveals that cancer samples had stronger expression of these genes compared with normal ones. conclusion: it seems that the different tlrs expression in testicular cancer cells may contribute to extensive signaling pathways involved in carcinogenesis.