Immunohistochemical Study of Mucin Gene Associated Antigensin Mucinous Ductal Ectasia

Kim, Hae Ryun; Kim, Myung Hwan; Lee, Kyung Ah; Park, So Young; Yu, Eun Sil; Min, Young Il

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Mucinous ductal ectasia (MDE) of the pancreas is defined as diffuse dilatation of pancreatic duct with extrusion of mucin through patulous papilla of Vater. However, the histologic spectrum of MDE is various to include hyperplasia, adenoma and adenocarcinoma. Mucins are high molecular weight glycoproteins. Aberrant and incomplete glycosylations of mucin have been described in cancer. In the present study, we investigated the expression of six different mucin gene in MDE and compared the expression with that in other types of pancreatic disease.
METHODS
Surgically resected specimens were stained using streptavidin-peroxidase immunohistochemical techniques with following antibodies: Mab JT10e (sTn), Mab 91S8 (Tn), Mab SNH3 (sLex), Mab 139H2 (MUC1), polyclonal anti-MRP (MUC2) and anti-M3P (MUC3).
RESULTS
In normal pancreas MUC1 antigen was expressed in the ductal epithelium and acini. MUC2 antigen was expressed only in acinar cells, while Tn, sTn, sLex and MUC3 antigens were not expressed. In MDE, Tn, sTn and sLex antibodies did not stain hyperplastic tissue but stained tumor cells of adenoma and adenocarcinoma with MDE. The expression of MUC 1, 2, and 3 showed striking contrast between MDE and ductal adenocarcinoma.
CONCLUSIONS
The results from this study suggest that the expression of mucin gene is related to histologic spectrum and biological behavior of pancreatic tumor.