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Updated: Jul 19, 2026
Genome-Wide Analysis of DNA Methylation in Gastrointestinal Cancer
Published on: September 18, 2020
Phenotype analysis by MUC2, MUC5AC, MUC6, and CD10 expression in Epstein-Barr virus-associated gastric carcinoma
Rita Rani Barua1, Hiroshi Uozaki, Ja-Mun Chong
1Department of Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Background:
Gastric marker mucins (MUC5AC and MUC6) and intestinal marker molecules (MUC2 and CD10) have been used to determine the cell lineage of epithelial cell of gastric carcinoma (GC).
Methods:
To clarify the characteristics of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated GC, 18 cases were immunohistochemically evaluated along with 56 cases of EBV-negative GC.
Results:
MUC2 expression was lower in EBV-associated GC: immunostaining grades 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 were observed in 10, 6, 1, 1, and 0 cases of EBV-associated GC, respectively, and in 18, 11, 15, 6, and 6 cases of EBV-negative GC, respectively (P = 0.013). CD10 positivity (grades 2-4) in EBV-associated GC was 6%, significantly lower than in EBV-negative GC (34%) (P = 0.030). When phenotypes of GC were categorized by the combined positivities of gastric markers (either MUC5AC or MUC6) and intestinal markers (either MUC2 or CD10), EBV-associated GC included primarily null (44%) and gastric (39%) types, but EBV-negative GC comprised null (7%), gastric (30%), intestinal (27%), and mixed (36%) types. The age of patients with gastric types was significantly younger for both EBV-associated GC and EBV-negative GC cases.
Conclusions:
Neoplastic epithelial cells of EBV-associated GC did not express MUC2 or CD10, and most of them were categorized as null or gastric types. EBV infection may occur in the epithelial cells of null or gastric phenotypes, which may be devoid of transdifferentiation potential toward intestinal phenotypes.
