Abstract:

Objective To study the expressions of mucin （MUC） 1 and 2 in extramammary Paget′s disease（EMPD） lesions. Methods Tissue specimens were obtained from the lesions of 19 patients with EMPD and normal skin of 19 human controls during cosmetic surgery. Streptavidin-perosidase （SP） technique was used to detect the expressions of MUC1 and MUC2 in these specimens. Results As haematoxylin-eosin （HE） staining showed, 3 cases were accompanied by poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, 6 were invasive Paget′s disease and 10 were intraepithelial EMPD. MUC1 was expressed in 2 cases accompanied by poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and in all the cases of invasive and intraepithelial EMPD; MUC2 was observed in all the cases of adenocarcinoma-complicated EMPD and invasive EMPD, but only in 2 of 10 cases of intraepithelial EMPD. Neither MUC1 nor MUC2 was observed in normal control specimens. A significant increase was observed in the expression of MUC1 in lesions of intraepithelial EMPD compared with invasive EMPD and adenocarcinoma-complicated EMPD （both P < 0.05）, and in the expression of MUC2 in lesions of invasive EMPD and adenocarcinoma-complicated EMPD compared with intraepithelial EMPD （both P < 0.05）. The expression of MUC1 was uncorrelated to that of MUC2 （r = -0.5, P > 0.05）. Conclusions MUC1 is generally expressed in the lesions of EMPD, while MUC2 is expressed in those of adenocarcinoma-complicated EMPD and invasive EMPD.

Key words: MUC2