Association of MUC6-minisatellite variants with susceptibility to rectal carcinoma

• Published in: Molecular biology reports 2013, Vol.40 (1), p.303-308
• Main Authors: Ahn, Myoung-Hyun, Bae, Ki Beom, Kwon, Jeong-Ah, Choi, Hong-Jo, Lee, Se-Ra, Kim, Si-Hoon, Jung, Tae Doo, Kim, Sun Hee, An, Min Sung, Hong, Kwan Hee, Heo, Jeonghoon, Kang, Tae-Hong, Chung, Jin Woong, Leem, Sun-Hee
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alleles; Animal Anatomy; Animal Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carcinoma - genetics; Case-Control Studies; Colorectal cancer; Female; Genetic markers; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genotype; Histology; Humans; Life Sciences; Male; Middle Aged; Minisatellite Repeats; Morphology; Mucin-6 - genetics; Polymorphism; Polymorphism, Genetic; Rectal Neoplasms - genetics; Risk factors; Sex Factors
• ISSN: 0301-4851; 1573-4978
• DOI: 10.1007/s11033-012-2062-5

A secreted MUC6 mucin is reported to be expressed highly in the stomach and gall bladder. In previous our study, the five minisatellites were identified and a significant association between MUC6 -MS5 alleles and gastric cancer was reported. Because of aberrant MUC6 expression is often found in gastrointestinal diseases, we evaluated a relationship between MUC6 -MS5 and susceptibility to colorectal cancers. Case–control study was performed with 1,103 cancer-free controls and 414 rectal cancer cases. A significant association (OR = 2.70) between short rare MUC6 -MS5 alleles (7, 9 repeats) and the occurrence of cancer was observed in rectal cancer [95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.12–6.54; p  = 0.022]. Furthermore, a comparison by gender showed the differences in the association ratios between rectal cancer and short rare MUC6 -MS5 alleles: male, 3.97 (CI: 1.36–11.5; p  = 0.006) versus female 0.91 (CI: 0.18–4.75; p  = 0.913). We also examined the association according to lymphovascular invasion (LVI). The frequency of LVI positive rectal cancer was increased in short rare allele cases than in the total rectal cases: 16.2 % versus 42.9 %. Therefore, we suggest that the short rare MUC6 -MS5 alleles may be related to cancer development in male and these cancer cases may be related the bad prognosis.