MUC6 monoclonal antibody

Mucin 6 (also designated MUC 6 and gastric mucin) is a large glycoprotein that plays a major role in the protection of the gastrointestinal tract. Mucin 6 carries GlcNAca1Æ4GalβÆR structures, indicating that a1,4-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase is important to the formation of the mucous glycoproteins in vivo. Mucin 6 expression is highest in the stomach and gall bladder, with lower expression in the terminal ileum and right colon. In gastric cancer, Mucin 6 has an altered expression. In normal stomach, Mucin 6 apomucin is associated with Lewis type 2; Mucin 6 is also expressed in gastric metaplasia, duodenum and pancreas. Mucin 6 is a secretory mucin, located in the deeper mucosal folds of human gall bladder, and its expression is altered with increasing degrees of inflammation. Mucin 6 mRNA is expressed transiently in the nephrogenic zone of the kidney in the early mid-trimester of development, and Mucin 6 glycoprotein is expressed in the epithelium of ureteric buds and collecting ducts, but absent from adult kidney. Proliferating bile ductular cells express Mucin 6 apomucin in diseased liver, especially in chronic viral hepatitis with active necroinflammation, suggesting that this secreted mucin acts as a cytoprotective agent and represents a phenotype of reactive biliary epithelium in chronic viral hepatitis.