Abstract
Background: Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) belongs to the glycoprotein family of secreted gel-forming mucins and is physiologically expressed in some epithelial cells. Studies have shown that MUC5AC is also expressed in several cancer types suggesting a potential utility for the distinction of tumor types and subtypes. Methods: To systematically determine MUC5AC expression in normal and cancerous tissues, a tissue microarray containing 10 399 samples from 111 different tumor types and subtypes as well as 608 samples of 76 different normal tissue types was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Results: MUC5AC was expressed in normal mucus-producing cells of various organs. At least weak MUC5AC positivity was seen in 44 of 111 (40%) tumor entities. Of these 44 tumor entities, 28 included also tumors with strong positivity. MUC5AC immunostaining was most commonly seen in esophageal adenocarcinoma (72%), colon adenoma (62%), ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (64%), mucinous carcinoma of the ovary (46%), diffuse gastric adenocarcinoma (44%), pancreatic ampullary adenocarcinoma (41%), intestinal gastric adenocarcinoma (39%), and bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (33%). Clinically relevant tumors with complete or almost complete absence of MUC5AC staining included small cell carcinoma of the lung (0% of 17), clear cell renal cell carcinoma (0% of 507), papillary thyroid carcinoma (0% of 359), breast cancer (2% of 1097), prostate cancer (2% of 228), soft tissue tumors (0.1% of 968), and hematological neoplasias (0% of 111). Conclusion: The highly standardized analysis of a broad range of cancers identified a ranking order of tumors according to their relative prevalence of MUC5AC expression.
Highlights
Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) belongs to the subset of 5 secreted gelforming mucins (MUC2, -5B, -5AC, -6, and -19) which are encoded by a gene cluster located at chromosome 11p15
MUC5AC is a glycoprotein with multiple cysteine-rich domains in both N- and C-terminal regions that are responsible for the formation of polymers, a critical feature for gel forming.[1]
MUC5AC is normally expressed in epithelia of the upper and lower respiratory tract, stomach, and endocervix,4–7 but it can be aberrantly expressed in a variety of cancers and their precursor lesions, including tumors arising from epithelia that are physiologically MUC5AC negative.[8,9,10,11,12,13,14]
Summary
Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) belongs to the subset of 5 secreted gelforming mucins (MUC2, -5B, -5AC, -6, and -19) which are encoded by a gene cluster located at chromosome 11p15. Mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) belongs to the glycoprotein family of secreted gel-forming mucins and is physiologically expressed in some epithelial cells. Studies have shown that MUC5AC is expressed in several cancer types suggesting a potential utility for the distinction of tumor types and subtypes. Methods: To systematically determine MUC5AC expression in normal and cancerous tissues, a tissue microarray containing 10 399 samples from 111 different tumor types and subtypes as well as 608 samples of 76 different normal tissue types was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. At least weak MUC5AC positivity was seen in 44 of 111 (40%) tumor entities. Conclusion: The highly standardized analysis of a broad range of cancers identified a ranking order of tumors according to their relative prevalence of MUC5AC expression
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