Originally published as JHC exPRESS on October 14, 2008. doi:10.1369/jhc.2008.952283
Volume 57 (1): 79-86, 2009 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Expression of UDP-N-acetyl-D-galactosamine: Polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase-6 in Gastric Mucosa, Intestinal Metaplasia, and Gastric Carcinoma
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology–IPATIMUP (JG,NTM,AM,RA,FG,CAR), Medical Faculty of the University of Porto (JPS,RA,CAR), and Institute of Biomedical Sciences of Abel Salazar–ICBAS (FG), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, and Departamento de Inmunobiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de la República and Institut Pasteur, Montevideo, Uruguay (NB,EO) Correspondence to: Celso A. Reis, Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology, University of Porto (IPATIMUP), Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: celso.reis{at}ipatimup.pt
Aberrant mucin O-glycosylation is often observed in cancer and is characterized by the expression of immature simple mucin-type carbohydrate antigens. UDP-N-acetyl-D-galactosamine:polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase-6 (ppGalNAc-T6) is one of the enzymes responsible for the initial step in O-glycosylation. This study evaluated the expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in human gastric mucosa, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric carcinomas. Our results showed that ppGalNAc-T6 is expressed in normal gastric mucosa and in intestinal metaplasia. A heterogeneous expression and staining pattern for this enzyme was observed in gastric carcinomas. ppGalNAc-T6 was expressed in 79% of the cases, and its expression level was associated with the presence of venous invasion. Our results provide evidence that ppGalNAc-T6 is an IHC marker associated with venous invasion in gastric carcinoma and may contribute to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie aberrant glycosylation in gastric carcinogenesis and in gastric carcinoma. (J Histochem Cytochem 57:79–86, 2009)
Key Words: mucin O-glycosylation ppGalNAc-T6 gastric mucosa intestinal metaplasia gastric carcinoma
MUCINS ARE O-glycosylated glycoproteins produced by most glandular epithelial tissues, representing the main component of the mucus layer on the surface of epithelial cells (Lesuffleur et al. 1994 In this study, we characterized the expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in normal gastric mucosa, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric carcinoma. We show that ppGalNAc-T6 is expressed in gastric mucosa and changes its expression during gastric carcinogenesis. Expression of ppGalNAc-T6 was found to be associated with a clinico-pathologic characteristic of gastric carcinoma.
Tissue Samples and Histological Classification The study was performed using surgical specimens of gastric carcinomas and adjacent mucosa from patients operated at Hospital S. João, Porto, Portugal. The use of retrospective samples when informed consent cannot be obtained is authorized for research studies by Portuguese Law. Analysis of the expression of ppGalNAc-T6 (MAb T6.3) was performed in 76 tissue samples, fixed in 10% formalin, and embedded in paraffin. Serial sections were cut and used for conventional histopathological diagnosis. Carcinomas were classified according to Laurén (1965)
The pathological staging was achieved using the unified 1987 TNM system for gastric carcinoma (Pinto-De-Sousa et al. 2001
IHC
IHC for mucin expression and classification of intestinal metaplasia was performed as previously described (Reis et al. 2000
Scoring of the Immunostaining and Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis was performed using the
Expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in Normal Gastric Mucosa Normal gastric mucosa showed expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in 25/36 (69%) cases. The expression was localized in the superficial foveolar epithelium and glandular cells of both antrum and body regions of the normal gastric mucosa (Figures 1A , 1B, and 2A ). The staining pattern observed for ppGalNAc-T6 was always perinuclear and/or supranuclear characterizing a Golgi staining pattern.
Expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in Intestinal Metaplasia Intestinal metaplasia showed expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in 14/27 (52%) cases in both goblet and columnar cells of metaplastic glands. The staining pattern observed for ppGalNAc-T6 was always perinuclear and/or supranuclear characterizing a Golgi staining pattern (Figures 1D and 1E). Expression of ppGaNAc-T6 was observed in both complete and incomplete types of intestinal metaplasia (Figure 2).
Expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in Gastric Carcinomas
A significant association was observed between the levels of expression of ppGalNAc-T6 and venous invasion (Table 1). Most cases with low levels of ppGalNAc-T6 expression showed absence of venous invasion (p<0.03). In addition, analysis of contingency split by tumor localization showed that venous invasion was more associated with ppGalNAc-T6 in tumors localized in the body region of the stomach (Table 2 ). Further logistic regression showed no deterministic relation in which venous invasion was solely explained by ppGalNAc-T6.
The expression of ppGalNAc-T6 was not associated with other clinico-pathological characteristics of gastric carcinomas.
Coexpression of Mucins (MUC5AC, MUC6, and MUC2) and ppGalNAc-T6 in Gastric Carcinomas
Alterations in mucin-type O-glycans are associated with malignant transformation. This study evaluated the pattern of expression of ppGalNAc-T6, a key enzyme involved in O-glycan biosynthesis in normal, metaplastic, and neoplastic gastric tissues. Our results showed that ppGalNAc-T6 was expressed both in the foveolar epithelium and glands of both antrum and body regions of the normal gastric mucosa.
In intestinal metaplasia, a precursor lesion of gastric carcinoma, we observed a slightly lower percentage of positive cases. Intestinal metaplasia shows a highly regulated pattern of expression of genes, reproducing the differentiation characteristics of intestinal cells. This is the case of mucins such as MUC2 (Reis et al. 1999
Studies in vitro have shown that ppGalNAc-Ts display site specificity and different kinetic properties toward O-glycosylation sites in mucins, including the MUC1 tandem repeat (Wandall et al. 1997
This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first evaluation of the expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in gastric carcinomas. This evaluation of ppGalNAc-T6 of gastric carcinomas was possible because of the capability of MAb T6.3 to recognize formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections (Berois et al. 2006
Different levels of ppGalNAc-T3 have been detected in patients with various types of carcinomas (Shibao et al. 2002 In summary, we showed that (a) ppGalNAc-T6 is expressed in normal gastric mucosa in both antrum and body regions; (b) in intestinal metaplasia, there is expression of ppGalNAc-T6 in 52% of the cases; (c) in gastric carcinomas, the expression of ppGalNAc-T6 is heterogeneous, with most cases (79%) expressing ppGalNAc-T6; and (d) ppGalNAc-T6 expression in gastric carcinomas is associated with venous invasion. Our results provide evidence that ppGalNAc-T6 is a novel IHC marker associated with venous invasion in gastric carcinomas and contributes to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie aberrant glycosylation during gastric carcinogenesis and gastric carcinoma.
This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) (PTDC/CTM/65330/2006 and PTDC/CVT/65537/2006); financiado no âmbito Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação 2010 do Quadro Comunitário de Apoio III e comparticipado pelo FEDER; and Association for International Cancer Research (AICR Grant 05-088). J.G. (SFRH/BD/40563/2007), N.T.M. (SFRH/BD/11764/2003), and A.M. (SFRH/BD/36339/2007) acknowledge FCT for financial support. We thank Leonor David and Ulla Mandel for suggestions, Mário Seixas for statistical analysis, and Nuno Mendes for technical assistance.
Received for publication July 18, 2008; accepted September 23, 2008
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