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BmB Reports

Mucin in cancer: a stealth cloak for cancer cells

  • 작성자

    Youn-Sang Jung
  • 작성일자

    2021-07-15
  • 조회수

    205
Name: Youn-Sang Jung ( younsang@cau.ac.kr )
2020-present Assistant Professor, Department of Life Science, Chung-Ang University
2019-2020 Instructor, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
2014-2019 Postdoctoral Fellow, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
2011-2014 Ph.D., Department of Molecular Biology, Pusan National University

Mucin in cancer: a stealth cloak for cancer cells

Mucins are high molecular-weight epithelial glycoproteins and are implicated in many physiological processes, including epithelial cell protection, signaling transduction, and tissue homeostasis. Abnormality of mucus expression and structure contributes to biological properties related to human cancer progression. Tumor growth sites induce inhospitable conditions. Many kinds of research suggest that mucins provide a microenvironment to avoid hypoxia, acidic, and other biological conditions that promote cancer progression. Given that the mucus layer captures growth factors or cytokines, we propose that mucin helps to ameliorate inhospitable conditions in tumor-growing sites. Additionally, the composition and structure of mucins enable them to mimic the surface of normal epithelial cells, allowing tumor cells to escape from immune surveillance. Indeed, human cancers such as mucinous carcinoma, show a higher incidence of invasion to adjacent organs and lymph node metastasis than do non-mucinous carcinoma. In this mini-review, we discuss how mucin provides a tumor-friendly environment and contributes to increased cancer malignancy in mucinous carcinoma.


BMB Rep 2021 Jun 22;5365. Online ahead of print.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34154702/