Expression of Mucoproteins in Gallbladder Cancer

This study was designed to evaluate the correlation of expression profiles of MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5AC to the clinico-pathological parameters in gallbladder cancer. We recruited biopsies of a total of 60 subjects including 50 primary tumor biopsies from histopathologically proven gallbladder cancer and 10 cases of chronic cholecystitis as control. We have investigated the expression levels of MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5AC by semi-quantitative RT-PCR and immune-histochemistry in gallbladder cancer biopsies, and chronic cholecystitis as a control. Clinical correlation of the differential expression of MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5AC was determined using appropriate statistical methods. Our results demonstrated that MUC2 was significantly (p = 0.004) upregulated in 16%, MUC4 was significantly (p = 0.0004) upregulated in 24%, and MUC5AC was significantly (p = 0.003) upregulated in 32% samples at transcript levels in primary gallbladder cancer biopsies in comparison to the control. Similar to RT-PCR data, MUC2 was significantly (p = 0.001) upregulated in 30%, MUC4 was significantly (p = 0.047) upregulated in 48%, and MUC5AC was significantly (p = 0.002) upregulated in 52% samples at proteome levels in primary gallbladder cancer biopsies in comparison to the control. In conclusion, the MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5AC expression were found to be significantly upregulated in gallbladder cancer group than control. The overexpression of MUC2, MUC4, and MUC5AC suggested their association with gallbladder cancer.