Jornal de Citologia e Histologia

Mucin Histochemistry in Tumours of Colon, Ovaries and Lung

Abstract

Usman Ali, Nagi AH, Nadia Naseem and Ehsan Ullah

Introduction: Mucins implicated in cancers of various organs. The apical epithelial surfaces of mammalian respiratory, gastrointestinal, and reproductive tracts are coated by mucus, a mixture of water, ions, glycoproteins, proteins, and lipids. The purpose of this study was to confirm the presence of mucin production using Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain as the gold standard and to describe the types of mucins produced in tumors of lung, colon and ovaries using various types of histochemical techniques. Methods: The resection specimens and biopsies from tumours of colon (n=16), ovaries (n=13) and lung (n=5) were included and stained with H&E to determin the histological diagnosis for selecting tissues with mucin production. Slides were stained with PAS, Alcian blue, High iron diamine-Alcian blue, Meyer’s mucicarmine and Alcian blue-PAS to demonstrate the mucin production and to identify types of mucins. Results: In the present study we observed predominance of acid mucins over neutral mucins. In addition in these cases we observed sulphomucin predominating over sialomucin. Conclusion: Mucin histochemistry can effectively determine the types of mucins.