Abstract
BACKGROUND: Mucinous carcinomas from different organs are morphologically similar and might share similarities at the molecular and biochemical levels that may illuminate their pathogenesis and influence management. The factors involved in the pathogenesis of mucinous carcinomas remain unknown; which is likely one contributor to the current dearth of biomarkers for detection. Because zinc changes are implicated in some cancers e.g., prostate; we assessed the possibility of a similar role in mucinous carcinomas. METHODS: The goal of the current work is to study the expression of hZip1 by immunohistochemistry in mucinous carcinomas as compared with non-neoplastic epithelia and conventional carcinomas. Tissue microarray slides containing mucinous carcinomas of the ovary (n = 35), colon (n = 51), stomach (n = 32) and lung (n = 21) were used. RESULTS: hZip1 showed persistent low expression in mucinous compared to ovarian serous carcinomas and normal tissue (P < 0.05), colonic adenocarcinoma and normal mucosa (P < 0.001), and gastric adenocarcinoma and normal epithelium (P < 0.05). hZip1 also showed low expression in pulmonary mucinous carcinomas. CONCLUSIONS: hZip1 is consistently decreased in mucinous carcinomas from a variety of organs. Despite the fact that these preliminary findings are unlikely to be of much diagnostic significance, these findings suggest that hZip1 plays a fundamental role in the carcinogenesis of mucinous tumors.