# STUDY OF CANCER-ASSOCIATED COLONIC MUCIN

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 1987 · $88,303

## Abstract

The aim of this project is to study carbohydrate structures in mucins and
relate these to states of differentiation and malignant transformation in
colonic epithelium.  One arm of the study is designed to detect and develop
markers of cellular differentiation, malignancy, and premalignant colonic
tissues.  A second arm is designed to study the structural and enzymatic
basis of the heterogeneity of colonic mucins.  Differentiation-dependent
changes have been found in the normal colon; transformation-associated
changes have been found in cancer and "transitional mucosa."
Identification of modifications in mucin structure has been found in a
variety of premalignant epithelia, including adenomatous polyps, rectal
biopsies from patients with chronic ulcerative colitis, and colons from
mice treated with a chemical carcinogen.  Preliminary evidence suggests
that cancer-associated alterations in colonic mucins may be due to
incomplete glycosylation of the oligosaccharide chains.

In the past year, progress has been made in two areas.  First, large
quantities of mucin may be obtained through the generation of xenografts in
nude mice from cultured human cancer cells.  Intracellular mucin-type
glycoconjugates may be identified in cultured cells, and secreted mucin has
been identified and isolated from the xenografts.  This will allow us to
pursue a biochemical analysis of the immunochemical determinants of
cancer-associated mucin.  Two methods have been developed to quantitate the
binding of lectins to isolated mucins.

Second, colons from several species of marmosets (new world monkeys) have
been examined and found to have carbohydrate structures similar to those in
humans.  In captivity, the cotton-top tamarin (Saginus oedipus oedipus)
develops an illness similar to ulcerative colitis in humans, and colonic
carcinoma complicates the illness in 25 to 50% of the animals.  The
cancer-associated mucin determinant was found in the colons of a large
percentage of this and two other species of tamarins that develop colitis
in captivity, and significantly larger amounts were found in the species in
which cancer develops and in those colons in which a cancer was also
present.  (1)

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3178028
- **Project number:** 5R01CA039233-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **SAM.gov UEI:** GNJ7BBP73WE9
- **Principal Investigator:** Clement Richard Boland
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $88,303
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1984-08-01 → 1988-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3178028

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3178028, STUDY OF CANCER-ASSOCIATED COLONIC MUCIN (5R01CA039233-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3178028. Licensed CC0.

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