# A STUDY OF CANCER-ASSOCIATED COLONIC MUCINS

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 1991 · $131,827

## Abstract

The mucins present in colon cancer appear to be abnormally
glycosylated compared to those found in the normal colon.
Cancer-associated mucins have been defined immunologically and
histochemically, however relatively little is known regarding the
biochemical structures of cancer-associated mucins or the
mechanisms leading to their synthesis.  Cancer-associated mucins
have been found in premalignant colonic lesions in the human and
animal models of cancer; additional diversity in mucin structure
appears in metastatic colorectal cancer.

The plan of this proposal is to isolate mucins from specimens of
normal human colon and from a mucin-producing human colon
cancer cell line.  The carbohydrate portion of the mucins
(oligosaccharides) will be cleaved from the mucins and separated
into monospecific peaks.  The oligosaccharides will be
characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance and other
techniques to determine the differences in expression of
oligosaccharide structures between the normal and cancerous
colon.

The enzymes responsible for generating the diversity of
carbohydrate structure in colonic mucins are membrane-bound
glycosyltransferase.  Using newly available substrates for the
precise measurement of glycosyltransferase activity, the ability
to synthesize a variety of "core oligosaccharide structures" will
be investigated in membrane preparations from normal and
malignant colons.  It will be determined whether the abnormal
glycosylation of cancer-associated mucins is due to the deletion
of certain oligosaccharide chain-elongating enzymes, or to the
synthesis of abnormal core structures that do not serve as
appropriate acceptors for additional glycosylation.

After using the cultured cell line for in-depth structural analysis
of carbohydrate structures, the relative expression of cancer-
associated oligosaccharides will be sought in individual specimens
of colorectal cancer, and related to such variable biological
behaviors as tumor cell differentiation, invasiveness, and ability
to metastasize.  These human studies will be supplemented by
animal models of colon cancer with differing biological behavior,
such as increasing metastatic potential, and the ability to give
rise to peritoneal carcinomatosis.

The long term objectives of this research are to understand the
process of abnormal glycosylation that occurs in tumor cells, and
to relate the diversity of abnormal glycosylation to the different
behaviors observed among individual tumors.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3178031
- **Project number:** 5R01CA039233-07
- **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:** 1991
- **Award amount:** $131,827
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1984-08-01 → 1993-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3178031

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3178031, A STUDY OF CANCER-ASSOCIATED COLONIC MUCINS (5R01CA039233-07). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3178031. Licensed CC0.

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