Monoclonal antibodies with specificity for mucin-like antigens have shown great promise for the diagnosis and therapy of human cancer. Heterogeneity in the expression of mucin-like antigens by tumor and normal cells has been noted in several previous studies. An understanding of the nature of this heterogeneity has important implications for the diagnostic and therapeutic usefulness of antibodi...

Pathogenic factors associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as cigarette smoke, proinflammatory cytokines, and bacterial infections, can individually induce respiratory mucins in vitro and in vivo. Since co-presence of these factors is common in lungs of patients with COPD, we hypothesized that cigarette smoke can amplify mucin induction by bacterial exoproducts and pr...

Our previous immunohistochemical studies for the expression of MUC1 mucin antigen (which was detected by monoclonal antibody DF3) and MUC2 mucin antigen (which was detected by polyclonal antibody anti-MRP) in pancreatic and intrahepatic bile duct tumors demonstrated that invasive carcinoma with poor outcome showed a pattern of MUC1+ and MUC2- expression, whereas many of the noninvasive tumors w...

BACKGROUND Lubiprostone is a synthetic bicyclic fatty acid derivative of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) used for chronic constipation. The best known action of lubiprostone is simulation of Cl- dependent fluid secretion. In a mouse model of the genetic disease cystic fibrosis, we previously showed that in vivo administration of lubiprostone resulted in greater mucus accumulation in the small intestine...

BACKGROUND Mucins are large complex glycoproteins that protect intestinal mucosal surfaces by limiting access of environmental matter to their epithelial cells. Several mucin genes have been described, including MUC3 that is a membrane associated mucin of the small intestine. Increased MUC3 mRNA transcription is induced by incubation of intestinal epithelial cells with a Lactobacillus strain kn...

Colonic mucin was prepared by phenol-water partition extraction of th colonic mucosa, followed by ethanol precipitation of the water-soluble material, molecular sieve chromatography, and reductive sodium dodecyl sulfate-disc gel electrophoresis in an agarose-polyacrylamide gradient gel. Although this material as observed to be relatively homogeneous by physical criteria, it was shown to contain...

Mucins are the principal components of mucus, and mucin glycosylation has important roles in defense, microbial adhesion, immunomodulation, inflammation, and cancer. Mucin expression and glycosylation are dynamic, responding to changes in local environment and disease. Potentially hundreds of heterogeneous glycans can substitute one mucin molecule, and it is difficult to identify biologically a...

The mucin-rich environment of the intact corneal epithelium is thought to contribute to the prevention of Staphylococcus aureus infection. This study examined whether O-glycans, which constitute the majority of the mucin mass of epithelial cell glycocalyces, prevented bacterial adhesion and growth. Abrogation of mucin O glycosylation using the chemical primer benzyl-alpha-GalNAc resulted in inc...

To obtain a tool to study the structural characterization and the detection of mucin derived from the gastric gland mucous cells, we developed a monoclonal antibody, designated HIK1083, against mucin purified from rat gastric mucosa. In an ELISA, HIK1083 reacted strongly with the mucin purified from a deep layer of the corpus and antrum but only slightly reacted with that obtained from the surf...

BACKGROUND We investigated whether chrysin affected MUC5AC mucin production and gene expression induced by phorbol ester (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, PMA) or epidermal growth factor (EGF) from human airway epithelial cells. METHODS Confluent NCI-H292 cells were pretreated with varying concentrations of chrysin for 30 minutes, and were then stimulated with PMA and EGF for 24 hours, respec...