Premium
Expression of MUC1, MUC2, MUC3 and MUC4 mucin mrnas in human pancreatic and intestinal tumor cell lines
Author(s) -
Hollingsworth Michael A.,
Strawhecker Judith M.,
Caffrey Thomas C.,
Mack David R.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910570212
Subject(s) - muc1 , mucin , messenger rna , pancreatic tumor , cell culture , biology , mucin 2 , microbiology and biotechnology , gene expression , pancreatic cancer , gene , biochemistry , cancer , genetics
We examined the steady‐state expression levels of mRNA for the MUC1, MUC2, MUC3 and MUC4 gene products in 12 pancreatic tumor cell lines, 6 colon tumor cell lines, and one ileocecal tumor cell line. The results showed that 10 of 12 pancreatic tumor cell lines expressed MUCI mRNA and that 7 of these 12 lines also expressed relatively high levels of MUC4 mRNA. In contrast, MUC2 mRNA was expressed at only low levels and MUC3 was not detected in the pancreatic tumor cell lines. All 7 intestinal tumor cell lines examined expressed MUC2, and 5 of 7 expressed MUC3; however only one expressed significant levels of MUCI and 2 expressed low levels of M0C4 mRNA. This report of high levels of MUC4 mRNA expression by pancreatic tumor cells raises the possibility that mucin carbohydrate epitopes defined by antibodies such as DuPan 2 may be expressed on a second mucin core protein produced by pancreatic tumor cells. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.