AIMS While overexpression of TGFα has been reported in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), mice with overexpressed TGFα develop premalignant pancreatic acinar-to-ductal metaplasia (ADM) but not PDAC. TGF-β signaling pathway is pivotal to the development of PDAC and tissue fibrosis. Here we sought to investigate the interplay between TGFα and TGF-β signaling in pancreatic tumorigenesi...

Mucin glycoproteins are major secreted or membrane-bound molecules that, in cancer, show modifications in both the mucin proteins expression and in the O-glycosylation profile, generating some of the most relevant tumour markers in clinical use for decades. Thus far, the identification of these biomarkers has been based on the detection of either the protein or the O-glycan modifications. We th...

Treatment of HT-29 cells with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), an activator of protein kinase C (PKC), induces MUC2 expression. To investigate the role of PKC in regulating mucin genes in intestinal cells, we examined the regulation of MUC1, MUC2, MUC5AC, MUC5B, and MUC6 expression in two human mucin-producing colonic cell lines, T84 and HT29/A1. T84 and HT29/A1 cells (at 80-90% confluenc...

A 60-year-old man presented with dysuria and elevated PSA (6.95 ng/ml). Needle biopsies of the prostate revealed well differentiated adenocarcinoma of Gleason's score 6. Prostatectomy and bilateral seminal vesiculotomy were performed. The material was totally cut into 16 preparations. The prostate showed well differentiated adenocarcinoma. The left seminal vesicle showed intraluminal monstrous ...

Whether invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma (IMA) and colloid adenocarcinoma (ICA) of the lung represent separate tumour entities, or simply lie within a spectrum of phenotypic variability, is worth investigating. Fifteen ICA, 12 IMA, 9 ALK-rearranged adenocarcinomas (ALKA), 8 non-mucinous KRAS-mutated adenocarcinomas (KRASA) and 9 mucinous breast adenocarcinomas (MBA) were assessed by immunohisto...

UDP-GalNAc:polypeptide α-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (GalNAc-Ts) constitute a family of up to 20 transferases that initiate mucin-type O-glycosylation. The transferases are structurally composed of catalytic and lectin domains. Two modes have been identified for the selection of glycosylation sites by GalNAc-Ts: confined sequence recognition by the catalytic domain alone, and concerted r...

Mucinous cystadenocarcinoma (MCA) in the breast is a rare neoplasm. There have been 13 cases of primary breast MCA reported. The MCA presents as a large, partially cystic mass in postmenopausal woman with a good prognosis. The microscopic findings resemble those of ovarian, pancreatic, or appendiceal MCA. The aspiration findings showed mucin-containing cell clusters in the background of mucin a...