Membrane-bound mucins in the oral environment: development of immunological assays to quantify MUC1

Date
2006
DOI
Authors
Amano, Koki
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
MUC 1 and MUC4 are two membrane-bound mucins which are expressed on many epithelial surfaces throughout the body including the oral cavity. The functions of these mucins in normal ells diverse, ranging from physiological roles in cell growth, differentiation, uterine embryo implantation, epithelial protection, bacterial attachment and signal transduction. In malignant cells, these mucins assume pathological roles in the masking of recognition sites for natural killer cells and promotion of tumor cell metastasis. Little is known, however, concerning the functions of these mucins in the oral cavity and the aim of this study was to develop a procedure to purify these mucins to homogeneity and determine their concentration in a variety of biological samples. The isolation of mucin proteins from cell culture medium proved problematic and efforts were therefore focused on the development of an immunological assay to measure MUC 1. Conditions for the assay were optimized and it was possible to demonstrate a linear relationship between protein concentration and optical density in a sandwich ELISA. The newly developed assay was then used to measure MUCl secretion in response to treatment of oral epithelial cells with the periodontal pathogen, Porphyromonas gingivalis. [TRUNCATED]
Description
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Thesis -- Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine, 2006.
License
This work is protected by copyright. Downloading is restricted to the BU community. If you are the author of this work and would like to make it publicly available, please contact open-help@bu.edu.