Diverse expression patterns of mucin 2 in colorectal cancer indicates its mechanism related to the intestinal mucosal barrier

Figure 1 Mucin 2 is mainly located in the cytoplasm. A: Normal tissue; B: Colorectal cancer tissue. Magnification: × 1000.

Figure 2 Representative pictures of immunohistochemical staining for mucin 2 in normal and cancer tissues of patients with colorectal cancer. A and B: Negative expression; C and D: Weak expression; E and F: Moderate expression; G and H: Strong expression. A, C, E, and G: Normal tissue; B, D, F, and H: Cancer tissue. Magnification: × 100 and × 400 (located in the upper right corner of each image).

Figure 3 Histogram of mucin 2 expression in cancer and normal tissues of patients with colorectal cancer. According to the comprehensive score of staining intensity and positive cell percentage, 0-3 was classified as low expression and 4-6 as high expression. ^aP < 0.05.

Figure 4 Comparison between the levels of serum diamine oxide, D-lactate, and mucin 2 in colorectal cancer patients and normal controls. A: The level of serum diamine oxidase in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and normal controls (NC); B: The level of serum D-lactate in CRC patients and NC; C: The level of serum mucin 2 in CRC patients and NC. The numbers at the bottom of the bar chart represent the mean, and the numbers above the error line represent the standard deviation. ^cP < 0.001. CRC: Colorectal cancer; NC: Normal controls; DAO: Diamine oxidase; D-LAC: D-lactate; MUC2: Mucin 2.

Figure 5 Prognostic value of tissue mucin 2 expression in colorectal cancer patients. A: Correlation between tissue mucin 2 (MUC2) expression and disease-free survival in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients; B: Correlation between tissue MUC2 expression and overall survival in CRC patients; C: Histogram of the recurrence rate of CRC patients with different tissue levels of MUC2 expression. DFS: Disease-free survival; OS: Overall survival. MUC2: Mucin 2; CRC: Colorectal cancer.