OBJECTIVE To compare levels of expression of mucin gene 2 (MUC2), a major secretory mucin, in the middle ear of patients with otitis media (OM) and control patients. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. PATIENTS Nineteen patients aged 6 months to 15 years undergoing routine ventilation tube insertion for recurrent OM or chronic OM with effusion a...

Tumors of the pancreas, the ampulla of Vater, and the extrahepatic and intrahepatic bile ducts have significant histological similarities due to the common embryonic origin of the pancreatobiliary system. This obviates the need for discovery of biomarkers with diagnostic and prognostic value for these tumors. Mucins, especially MUC-1, -2, -4 and -5AC, are important candidates for developing int...

OBJECTIVE The description of Barrett's esophagus which is a risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma has differences, and the need of goblet cells for diagnosis is controversial. However, the pathophysiology in the metaplasia seen in Barrett's esophagus is not totally understood and new methods are searched for the assessment of progression to dysplasia. We aimed to search the immunohistochemi...

BACKGROUND The entire gastrointestinal tract is protected by a mucous layer, which contains complex glycoproteins called mucins. MUC2 is one such mucin that protects the colonic mucosa from invading microbes. The initial interaction between microbes and mucins is an important step for microbial pathogenesis. Hence, it was of interest to investigate the relationship between host (mucin) and path...

Hath1, a bHLH transcription factor negatively regulated by the γ-secretase-dependent Notch pathway, is required for intestinal secretory cell differentiation. Our aim was fourfold: 1) determine whether Hath1 is able to alter the phenotype of colon cancer cells that are committed to a differentiated phenotype, 2) determine whether the Hath1-dependent alteration of differentiation is coupled to a...

The mucus layer coating the gastrointestinal tract is the front line of innate host defense, largely because of the secretory products of intestinal goblet cells. Goblet cells synthesize secretory mucin glycoproteins (MUC2) and bioactive molecules such as epithelial membrane-bound mucins (MUC1, MUC3, MUC17), trefoil factor peptides (TFF), resistin-like molecule beta (RELMbeta), and Fc-gamma bin...

Particular mucinous phenotypes have been associated with serrated epithelial polyps of the colon. These polyps also show a high frequency of DNA instability. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of mucins in colorectal cancers that arise through the suppressor and mutator pathways. The immunohistochemical distribution of the human apomucins MUC1, MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5AC was determ...

Mucin 2 (MUC2) is the major intestinal mucin. O-glycans are attached to MUC2 in a potentially diverse arrangement, which is crucial for their interaction with endogeneous and exogeneous lectins. In the present report, five oligopeptides [PTTTPITTTT(K), ITTTTTVTPT(K), TVTPTPTPTG(K), PTPTGTQTPT(K) and TQTPTTTPIT(K)] corresponding to portions of the MUC2 tandem repeat domain were synthesized, and ...

INTRODUCTION The presence of MUC5AC (M1 antigen) and MUC6 have previously been found in ovarian mucinous cyst. We characterized the mucins in the crude mucus and tissue of a mature ovarian teratoma in an 8 year old girl. MATERIALS AND METHODS Mucins were purified from crude mucus by density gradient ultra-centrifugation in CsCl and analysed by gel-filtration and SDS-PAGE analysis. Mucin ident...

BACKGROUND Mucin immunoexpression in adenocarcinoma arising in Barrett's esophagus (BE) may indicate the carcinogenesis pathway. The aim of this study was to evaluate resected specimens of adenocarcinoma in BE for the pattern of mucins and to correlate to the histologic classification. METHODS Specimens were retrospectively collected from thirteen patients who underwent esophageal resection d...