Cloning of partial cDNA encoding differentiation and tumor-associated mucin glycoproteins expressed by human mammary epithelium.

Human mammary epithelial cells secrete and express on their cell surfaces complex mucin glycoproteins (Mr greater than 250,000) that are developmentally regulated, tumor-associated, and highly immunogenic. Studies using monoclonal antibodies directed to these glycoproteins suggest that their molecular structures can vary with differentiation stages in the normal gland and in malignancy. To analyze the molecular nature of these glycoproteins, milk mucin was affinity-purified and deglycosylated with hydrogen fluoride, yielding bands at 68 and 72 kDa on silver-stained gels. Polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies to the stripped core protein were developed and used to screen a lambda gt11 expression library of cDNA made from mRNA of the mammary tumor cell line MCF-7. Seven cross-reacting clones were isolated, with inserts 0.1-1.8 kilobases long. RNA blot analysis, using as a probe the 1.8-kilobase insert subcloned in plasmid pUC8 (pMUC10), revealed transcripts of 4.7 and 6.4 kilobases in MCF-7 and T47D mammary tumor cells, whereas normal mammary epithelial cells from pooled milks have additional transcripts. The expression of mRNA correlates with antigen expression as determined by binding of two previously characterized anti-mucin monoclonal antibodies (HMFG-1 and HMFG-2) to seven cell lines. Restriction enzyme analysis detected a restriction fragment length polymorphism when human genomic DNA was digested with EcoRI or HinfI.