- 期刊
MUC1 and MUC2 Protein expression in Uterine Endometrial Cancer
MUC1及 MUC2蛋白在子宮在子宮內膜癌之表達
並列摘要
Objectives: Mucins are a family of heavy glycosylation, high molecular weight glycoproteins. Ten epithelial mucin genes have been cloned. NUC1 is an integral part of the cell membrane in nearly all epithelium including endometium. MUC2, a secretory glycoprotein, is expressed only in the intestinal tract. There is little research on MUC1 and MUC2 expression in endometrial cancer. Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemical stainings were performed on spectimens from formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue blocks using immunoperoxidase methods with labeled streptoavidin biotin peroxidase comple. The specimens were from 20 patients who had endometrial cancer between 1990 and 1999 at Tzu Chi General Hospital. Results: MUC1 was expressed in all endometrial cancers. Strong cytoplasmic staining was seen in endometrial cancer, in contrast to apical surface membrane staining in normal endometrium. Three cases of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the endometrium presented with +1 or +2 staining. The other 17 cases of well or moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the endometrium demonstrated +3, +4 or +5 staining, among which 12 had +5 intensity. No evidence of MUC2 exoression in normal endometrium was seen but three cases of endometrial cancer (15%) had focal aberrant expression of MUC2 with +1, +2 and +3 staining. Conclusions: Neoplastic transformation of endometrial cancer is associated with dysregulated expression of both membrane-bound and secreted mucin core protein epitopes and this phenomenon may be due to altered mucin mRNA levels and/or altered mucin glycosylation.