Isolation and characterization of colon cancer mucin from xenografts of LS174T cells.

The structure of colonic mucin, which is thought to be important in several diseases, including ulcerative colitis and colon cancer, is poorly understood. Mucin was isolated from nude mouse xenografts of the LS174T colonic adenocarcinoma cell line by gel filtration and CsCl density gradient centrifugation. The isolated mucin had a high content of threonine, serine, and proline, with 28% of the total amino acids O-glycosylated. The carbohydrates present were fucose, sialic acid, galactose, N-acetyl-glucosamine, and N-acetyl-galactosamine in the ratio of 0.4:1.5:1.0:0.9:1.4. Rabbit antibodies were prepared that recognized primarily protein-dependent determinants. By DEAE-cellulose chromatography, the purified mucin was found to be heterogeneous, with three major components that had small differences in carbohydrate composition. LS174T was antigenically and chromatographically similar to mucins in colon cancer tissue specimens and in nonmalignant colonic mucosae.