Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a debilitating disease of the bladder that produces pain, urgency and frequent urination. The cause is not known, nor are there any good cures. The treatments seem to work for some sufferers but not others.

 We have been studying various aspects of IC for several years. In a recent paper, we showed that the expression of 4 different markers for differentiation and cell adhesion were altered in IC. The figure below is taken from this paper and shows aberrant expression of the 4 biomarkers. This suggests that the bladder urothelium fails to differentiate properly in IC. We currently are investigating this possibility.