Sialomucin production in aberrant crypt foci relates to degree of dysplasia and rate of cell proliferation

Aberrant crypt foci (ACF) are putative early preneoplastic lesions of colon cancer. To date, many different ACF parameters have been measured as indic ators of degree of colon cancer risk. It has been suggested that ACF produc ing sialomucins (SIM) may be more advanced types of ACF than those producin g sulphomucins (SUM), but little data are available to support this. The ob jective of this experiment was to see if SIM ACF, as observed in whole moun t colons, are different from other ACF and surrounding normal colonic crypt s in terms of their rate of cell proliferation and degree of dysplasia. Res ults showed that all ACF had a higher rate of cell proliferation than norma l crypts and that SIM ACF had higher cell proliferation in the top regions of the crypt, higher phih index of cell proliferation, higher degree of dys plasia, greater size and increased degree of luminal alterations than SUM A CF. We conclude that SIM ACF, as observed in whole mount colons, have more alterations and are more advanced towards tumorigenesis than SUM ACF and ma y be a better predictor of colon cancer risk than other measures of ACF. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.