Effect of a tobacco-related nitrosamine on intercellular communication in human urothelial cells: a possible factor in smoking-related bladder carcinogenesis.

Bladder cancer is associated with smoking. Among the tobacco-derived carcinogens suspected of being involved in initiating the disease are nitrosamines found in urine. In this study a nitrosamine found in the urine of smokers was tested using a tissue culture model of normal human urothelium. Explant cultures were established from ureters and exposed to 5 ng/ml of the derivative. This level had been demonstrated previously to induce a variety …