The prognostic value of mucins expression in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) remains controversial. To address this, a meta-analysis was performed to systematically evaluate prognostic significance of mucins expression in HNC. Electronic and manual searches were performed and a total of 20 studies including 2046 patients were selected for the final analysis. Increased mucins expression...

Gastric mucins are high molecular weight extracellular glycoproteins that play a major role in the protection of the gastrointestinal tract and besides that they are also involved in many disease processes. In the present study, size exclusion chromatography under non-degrading conditions was used to study the fragmentation pattern of native gastric mucins. The samples of gastric mucins of diff...

Mucins belong to a heterogeneous family of large O-glycoproteins composed of a long peptidic chain called apomucin on which are linked hundreds of oligosaccharidic chains. Among mucins, membrane-bound mucins are modular proteins and have a structural organization usually containing Pro/Thr/Ser-rich O-glycosylated domains (PTS), EGF-like and SEA domains. Via these modular domains, the membrane-b...

Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacter jejuni colonize the stomach and intestinal mucus, respectively. Using a combination of mucus-secreting cells, purified mucins, and a novel mucin microarray platform, we examined the interactions of these two organisms with mucus and mucins. H. pylori and C. jejuni bound to distinctly different mucins. C. jejuni displayed a striking tropism for chicken gastr...

Trousseau syndrome is classically defined as migratory, heparin-sensitive but warfarin-resistant microthrombi in patients with occult, mucinous adenocarcinomas. Injecting carcinoma mucins into mice generates platelet-rich microthrombi dependent on P- and L-selectin but not thrombin. Heparin prevents mucin binding to P- and L-selectin and mucin-induced microthrombi. This model of Trousseau syndr...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Antimicrobial activity in tears prevents infection while maintaining a commensal bacterial population. The relation between mucin and commensal bacteria was assessed to determine whether commensals possess mucinolytic activity, how degradation depends on mucin integrity, and whether mucins affect bacterial replication. METHODS Bacteria were sampled from healthy eyes and contac...

Hollow organs lined by columnar epithelial cells normally secrete mucins and their proteolytic fragments vectorially into the lumen. These heterogeneously O-glycosylated molecules are known to aberrantly enter the bloodstream in the setting of epithelial carcinomas and possibly during injury or inflammation. We have recently shown that carcinoma mucin fragments can trigger the rapid formation o...

PURPOSE To examine the presence of specific membrane-associated mucins in normal human conjunctiva. METHODS Glycoconjugates were extracted from membranes with two detergents: octylglucoside and Triton X114. Mucins were separated by cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation. Size was assessed by gel filtration on Sepharose CL2B and charge by ion-exchange chromatography on MonoQ. Cross re...

BACKGROUND Mucins are critical cytoprotective glycoproteins and alterations of epithelial gastric mucins have been described in different pathological conditions. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the putative usefulness of mucins in understanding the progression of gastric cancer and gallstone formation in a better perspective. METHODS Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded gastric ...

Mucins, which are synthesized throughout the gastrointestinal tract, may be degraded by the microflora of the large intestine. The present study was undertaken to determine the differential fate of the various types of mucins. Mucins from germ-free rats were incubated in vitro in the presence of whole caecal flora from the conventional rat. Neutral, acidic and acidic sulphated mucins were spect...