Novel MUC1 splice variants are expressed in cervical carcinoma

Objectives. The MUC1 antigen can be used to identify epithelial cells from the background of hemopoictic cells. The present investigation describes pa tterns of overexpression of two novel MUC1 splice variants in human cervica l carcinoma cell lines. Methods. RT-PCR was carried out to determine MUC1 s plice variants in the cervical cancer cell lines C-4 II, C-33A, DoTc 2 4510 , C-4 I, SiHa, HT3, Hs 636 T (C4-I), and HeLa. Results. The novel MUC1 splice variant D was expressed in all cell lines an d the novel MUC1 splice variant C was expressed in all cell lines but C-33A . Variants A and B were expressed in a (variant A) and all but one (variant B) cell line. MUC1/REP was expressed in all cell lines and MUC1/SEC was po sitive in all but two cell lines (C-33 A, DoTc 2 4510). All but one cell li ne (C-33A) expressed MUC1/X and MUC1/Y, and two cell lines (C-33 A, DoTc 2 4510) did not express MUC1/Z, respectively. MUC1 variants A, D, and REP cou ld be demonstrated consistently among all eight cervical carcinoma cell lin es we have examined. Conclusions. The present study describes the feasibility of detecting a lar ge number of MUC1 variants, including MUC1 variants C and D which are descr ibed for cervical carcinoma cells for the first time. Further studies will examine the presence of MUC1 splice variants' expression in human cervical carcinoma tissue. (C) 2001 Academic Press.