Study of Muc2 and Muc4 Mucins in Cancer of the Higher Aerodiversity

Abstract

Objectve: To know the role played by the MUC2 and MUC4 mucins genes in cancers of the upper aerodigestve tract. Material and methods: It was a cross-sectonal retrospectve study of 10 years (July 2004 - July 2013) carried out in the otolaryngology departments of the University Hospital Center of Brazzaville and general hospital Adolph Sice (in Pointe-noire, Congo). All patents with upper aerodigestve tract cancers with histological evidence were included. For the study of mucins “MUC2 et MUC4” the molecular biology technique used was immunohistochemistry on pieces of laryngeal biopsies embedded in parafn. Results: A total of 85 cases of upper aerodigestve tract cancers were collected with a sample comprising the tumor and peri tumoral mucosa. The incidence was 8.5 cases of upper aero-digestve tract cancer per year and a rato of 1.8 in favor of men. The main risk factor was smoking (94.2%) and all patents with squamous cell carcinoma found on the tumor lining. On immunohistochemistry, the mucins MUC2 and MUC4 were present in the normal mucosa of the upper aero-digestve tract and gradually lost their expression from the metaplastc mucosa to the tumor mucosa (P=0.03). These mucins “MUC2 and MUC4” were absent on tumor mucosa in both smoking and non-smoking patents with a statstcally signifcant di?erence (P=0.01). Conclusion: The loss of expression of the MUC2 and MUC4 genes within the tumor mucosa is a key mechanism in the carcinogenesis of the upper aerodigestve tract.