To investigate the effect of ulinastatin on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of bladder cancer T24 cells.

Bladder cancer T24 cells were randomly divided into blank, control, experimental, combined groups. The cells in the blank group were cultured normally; and the cells in the control group were treated with RPMI-1640 medium containing 0.75 μmol·L^-1 KYA1797K; the cells in the experimental group were treated with RPMI-1640 medium containing 5.00 μmol·L^-1 ulinastatin and the cells in the combined group were treated with RPMI-1640 medium containing 5.00 μmol·L^-1 ulinastatin and 0.75 μmol·L^-1 KYA1797K. The treatment time was 48 hours. The cell viability was detected by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay. Transwell assay was used to detect the invasion and migration ability of cells. The protein expression levels of epithelial-mesenchymal transition related proteins, wingless-type MMTV integration site family 3α (Wnt3α) and β-catenin were detected by Western blotting.

The survival rates of the blank group, control group, experimental group and combined group were (100.00±0.00)%, (73.28±6.37)%, (76.98±5.82)% and (40.36±3.21)%, respectively; the numbers of invasive cells were 66.83±8.18, 33.33±3.27, 38.67±4.32 and 11.33±1.21, respectively; the migration number were 79.33±6.38, 53.00±6.26, 52.33±3.14 and 28.33±5.28, respectively; the relative expression levels of E-cadherin protein were 0.23±0.08, 0.51±0.02, 0.58±0.05 and 0.82±0.03, respectively; the relative expression levels of Vimentin protein were 0.78±0.03, 0.55±0.02, 0.58±0.06 and 0.27±0.06, respectively; the relative expression levels of N-cadherin were 0.83±0.08, 0.59±0.02, 0.62±0.02 and 0.31±0.09, respectively; the relative expression levels of Wnt3α protein were 0.85±0.09, 0.28±0.13, 0.29±0.05 and 0.12±0.01, respectively; the relative expression levels of β-catenin were 0.81±0.05, 0.25±0.07, 0.22±0.03 and 0.08±0.02, respectively. The above indexes in the control group and experimental group were significantly different from those in the blank group and combined group (all P<0.05).

Ulinastatin can inhibit the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of bladder cancer T24 cells, and its mechanism may be related to the inhibition of Wnt signaling pathway.