Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 28, 2018; 24(36): 4164-4177
Published online Sep 28, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i36.4164
Differential expression of mucin 1 and mucin 2 in colorectal cancer
Aldona Kasprzak, Elżbieta Siodła, Małgorzata Andrzejewska, Jacek Szmeja, Agnieszka Seraszek-Jaros, Szczepan Cofta, Witold Szaflarski
Aldona Kasprzak, Elżbieta Siodła, Małgorzata Andrzejewska, Witold Szaflarski, Department of Histology and Embryology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan 60-781, Poland
Jacek Szmeja, Chair and Department of General Surgery, Endocrinological and Gastroenterological Oncology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan 60-355, Poland
Agnieszka Seraszek-Jaros, Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Chair of Clinical Pathomorphology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan 60-529, Poland
Szczepan Cofta, Department of Pulmonology, Allergology and Respiratory Oncology, Poznan University of Medical Science, Poznan 60-569, Poland
Author contributions: Kasprzak A contributed to conception, design of the study, analyzed data and coordinated the research; Siodła E and Andrzejewska M performed the majority of immunohistochemical and molecular investigations; Szmeja J, Cofta S and Szaflarski W interpreted the data, analyzed the results, and performed a critical revision of the manuscript; Szmeja J provided samples of cancer patients and clinical data; Seraszek-Jaros A performed biostatistics and analyzed the data; Kasprzak A and Szaflarski W drafted the manuscript.
Supported by National Science Center in Poland, No. 2015/17/B/NZ7/03043.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by Committee on Bioethics of Poznan University of Medical Sciences, No. 924/14.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest, including no conflicts concerning employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimonies, patent applications/registrations, grants or other funding.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Aldona Kasprzak, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Histology and Embryology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Swiecicki Street 6, Poznan 60-781, Poland. akasprza@ump.edu.pl
Telephone: +48-61-8546441 Fax: +48-61-8546440
Received: July 16, 2018
Peer-review started: July 16, 2018
First decision: July 24, 2018
Revised: August 15, 2018
Accepted: August 24, 2018
Article in press: August 24, 2018
Published online: September 28, 2018
Processing time: 74 Days and 17.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Colorectal cancers (CRC) represent the second most widely manifested malignant tumor worldwide in women and third in men. The evident expression of two mucins [mucin 1 (MUC1) and mucin 2 (MUC2)] occurs in a normal and cancerous large intestine. Using RT-qPCR analysis and immunohistochemistry we confirmed higher expression of the MUC1 mRNA, lower MUC2 protein, and higher MUC1/MUC2 expression ratio in CRC samples as compared to the control. MUC2 protein expression correlates with increased cellular proliferation. A combination of tissue overexpression of MUC1, reduced MUC2 expression, and high ratio of MUC1/MUC2 may be a useful factor of poor prognosis in CRC patients.