The epithelial surface of the respiratory tract is coated with a protective film of mucus secreted by epithelial goblet and submucosal gland cells. Histology of the airway mucosa and composition of secretions during the second trimester of fetal life are known to differ from the normal adult in that these secretions show similarities with those of hypersecretory disorders. To provide informatio...

Helicobacter pylori causes gastritis, peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer. The microbe is found in the gastric mucus layer where a pH gradient ranging from acidic in the lumen to neutral at the cell surface is maintained. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of pH on H. pylori binding to gastric mucins from healthy individuals. At pH 3, all strains bound to the most c...

Pyloric gland adenoma is a rare neoplasm with a gastric epithelial differentiation. We report 23 cases of pyloric gland adenoma in older persons, with a mean age of 74 years (range 52 - 87 years). They occurred in the esophagus (3 cases), corporal gastric mucosa (7 cases), duodenum (10 cases), gallbladder (2 cases), and choledochus (one case). Histologically, they were characterized by closely ...

Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) has become a major concern in Western countries due to rapid rises in incidence coupled with very poor survival rates. One of the key risk factors for the development of this cancer is the presence of Barrett's esophagus (BE), which is believed to form in response to repeated gastro-esophageal reflux. In this study we performed comparative, genome-wide expression...

The physical character and amount of mucus secreted by the endocervix changes dramatically during the menstrual cycle to facilitate sperm migration at the time of midcycle ovulation. Mucins are highly glycosylated, high-molecular-weight proteins, which are the major structural components of the protective mucus gel covering all wet-surfaced epithelia, including that of the endocervix. We have p...

RATIONALE Gastric adenocarcinoma of fundic gland mucosa type (GA-FGM) is a rare tumor composed of atypical cells with differentiation toward the fundic gland as well as the foveolar epithelium. Including our case, only 9 cases of GA-FGMs were reported from 2010 to 2016. CONCERNS OF THE PATIENT An 87-year-old man was referred to our institution for endoscopic resection of a gastric lesion. The...

BACKGROUND A close association between patterns identified by magnifying narrow-band imaging (M-NBI) and histological type has been described. M-NBI patterns were also recently reported to be related to the mucin phenotype; however, detials remain unclear. MATERIALS AND METHODS We investigated the cellular differentiation of gastric cancer lesions, along with their mucosal distribution observ...

In spite of the evidence that the malignant transformation of gastric hyperplastic polyps (HPs) is a rare event, it must always be taken into account during diagnosis. The aim of the current study was to clarify the mechanism of the malignant transformation of gastric hyperplasia polyps, with focus on phenotypic expression, cell proliferation and p53 overexpression. Immunohistochemistry for muc...

In gastric cancer, altered expression of MUC1, MUC2, MUC5AC, and MUC6 mucin genes has already been described. We show in this report by the means of in situ hybridization, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and transfection assays that MUC5B is also abnormally expressed in gastric carcinomatous tissues and cell lines. We thus undertook to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that re...

In the current WHO blue book, combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (C-HCC-CC) was classified into two types; classical type and type with stem cell features. The latter is extremely rare, and is subcategorized into the following three subtypes; typical subtype, intermediate cell subtype, and cholangiocellular subtype. Recently, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) with features of ductal...