Effect Of MUC2 And MUC3 On Cholesterol Gallstones Formation

Backgroud: The gallbladder stones are common disease all overthe world. With living condition improving, the incidence ofgallstones is rising. The research of biliary cholesterol upersaturatedand cholesterol microcrystal nucleation didn't unveil the mechanismof gallstone formation. Recent studies discovered that using specificantibodies, mucin has been localized within the core of cholesterolgallstones and within sediments of gallbladder bile of patients withcholesterol. Numerous studies have shown that mucin hypersecretionoccurs prior the formation of cholesterol crystals and gallstones in avariety of animal models. Gallbladder mucins play a critical role in thepathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones because of their ability to bindbiliary lipids and accelerate cholesterol crystallization.Mucin is high-molecular-weight and densely glycosylatedglycoprotein that is synthesized and secreted by many glandularepithelia exsiting gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, mammarygland, endoeervix and ovarian, which has the function of lubricationand protection. It is also the major structural compoment of the mucusand covers the apical surface of most glandular epithelia. There aremany differet mucins composed by a protein backbone and O-linkedoligosaeeharide chains in common, N-linked oligosaccharide chainslittle partly. The cDNAs of nine mucin genes encoding mucin conepeptides have been isolated from human gastric, intestinal, respiratory,urogenital tracts, breast, pancreatic and salivary cDNA expressionlibrary. Previous studies have proved that the numerous changes ofmucins and their genes were involved in malignant transformation ofthe gallbladder mucosa, and are related to many clinicopathologicalfeatures. Furthermore, mucins and their genes play magic roles in thediagnosis and biological therapy of neoplasm, and have wide andexciting future. But there are not systematic studies concerning theeffects of mucins and their genes in the transformation from normalgallbladder mucosa to neoplasm.Objective: Mucin proteins are derived from many different genes.With development in molecularbiology recently, 14 mucin genes havebeen identified, coding different mucin, named, MUC1-MUC13. Inthis study, we evaluated the laws of mucins expression in biles ofpatients with or without gallstones. To study whether MUC2 andMUC3 influences susceptibility to cholesterol cholelithiasis.Materials and Methods: MUC2, MUC3 mucins were detected inthe biles of patients with gallstones (n=30) compared with thosewithout gallstones (n=10), by the analysized in optical densitysemi-quantitively by Western-blotting. Mucins that's in the gallstones(n=30) are also been done.Results: There is great different between the expression of MUC2and of MUC3. The expression of MUC2 was significantly lower inbiles of gallstone groups than that in controls (P<0.01). Whereas theexpression of MUC2 was much higher than that in controls (P<0.01).