Chang S K, Dohrman A F, Basbaum C B, Ho S B, Tsuda T, Toribara N W, Gum J R, Kim Y S
Gastrointestinal Research Laboratory, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
Gastroenterology. 1994 Jul;107(1):28-36. doi: 10.1016/0016-5085(94)90057-4.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Several studies have reported Northern blot data showing that mucin is expressed in a tissue-specific manner. To determine whether expression is limited to specific cell types within these tissues requires histological analysis.
Both immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization were used to identify cell types expressing the MUC2 and MUC3 mucins in the human small intestine, colon, and colon carcinoma.
In the normal small intestine and colon, an antibody recognizing the MUC2 apomucin stained goblet cells. In contrast, an antibody recognizing the MUC3 apomucin stained both goblet and absorptive cells. Consistent with this, in situ hybridization showed MUC2 messenger RNA (mRNA) only in goblet cells and MUC3 mRNA in both goblet and absorptive cells. In several samples of moderately well-differentiated colon cancer, MUC2 and MUC3 showed distinct patterns of expression, but the expression level of each was reduced compared with levels in normal tissue; there was considerable tumor-to-tumor and cell-to-cell variability using both mucin antibodies and complementary DNA probes.
Individual mucin genes have distinct patterns of expression within mucin-producing tissues, suggesting that the various mucin gene products play distinct functional roles.
背景/目的：多项研究报告了Northern印迹数据，显示粘蛋白以组织特异性方式表达。要确定表达是否仅限于这些组织内的特定细胞类型，需要进行组织学分析。
采用免疫细胞化学和原位杂交技术，鉴定人小肠、结肠和结肠癌中表达MUC2和MUC3粘蛋白的细胞类型。
在正常小肠和结肠中，识别MUC2脱辅基粘蛋白的抗体可对杯状细胞进行染色。相比之下，识别MUC3脱辅基粘蛋白的抗体可对杯状细胞和吸收细胞进行染色。与此一致，原位杂交显示MUC2信使核糖核酸（mRNA）仅存在于杯状细胞中，而MUC3 mRNA存在于杯状细胞和吸收细胞中。在几个中分化结肠癌样本中，MUC2和MUC3表现出不同的表达模式，但与正常组织相比，每种的表达水平均降低；使用粘蛋白抗体和互补DNA探针时，肿瘤间和细胞间存在相当大的变异性。
单个粘蛋白基因在产生粘蛋白的组织内具有不同的表达模式，这表明各种粘蛋白基因产物发挥着不同的功能作用。
