Mucin gene and antigen expression in biliopancreatic carcinogenesis

Mucins are high molecular weight glycoproteins which are heavily glycosylat ed with many carbohydrate side chains. In epithelial cancers such as biliop ancreatic cancer, both quantitative and qualitative alterations in carbohyd rate and polypeptide moieties of mucin glycoproteins occur. These changes i n mucin glycoproteins are one of the most common phenotypic markers of bili opancreatic carcinogenesis and may play an important pathobiological role. The expression of some of the sialylated carbohydrate antigens appears to c orrelate with a poor prognosis and increased metastatic potential in biliop ancreatic cancer. The increased exposure of peptide epitopes of mucin glyco proteins in biliopancreatic cancer appears to be due to either abnormal gly cosylation and/or altered levels of mucin gene transcription. In addition, dysregulation of tissue specific mucin gene expression occurs in biliopancr eatic cancer. This information is currently being exploited for further elu cidation of the molecular mechanisms involved in carcinogenesis, tumor prog ression and metastasis, and the development of novel methods of diagnosis a nd therapy of biliopancreatic cancer.