Expression analysis of transmembrane mucins MUC1 and MUC4 at RNA and protein level in various bladder carcinoma cell lines and tabular representation of mucin expression as observed during tissue staining in the urothelial carcinoma progression.

<p>Quantitative RT-PCR analyses of MUC1 (A) and MUC4 (B) showed that all bladder carcinoma cell line except T24 expresses MUC1 and MUC4. Highest expression of both MUC1 and MUC4 was observed in tumor cell line HT1376. For expression analyses of mucin MUC1 and MUC4 at protein level, the protein lysates from all the bladder carcinoma cell lines were resolved on 2% agarose gel and probed with anti-MUC1 (HMFG2) and anti-MUC4 (8G7) antibodies (Panel C). β-actin resolved on 10% SDS-PAGE was used as a loading control (Panel C). No expression of any mucin MUC1 and MUC4 was observed in T24 while other cell lines expressed both the mucins. (D) Tabular representations of MUC1 and MUC4 expression during bladder carcinoma progression. Significant changes in expression of both MUC1 and MUC4 were observed during progression of urothelial carcinoma. Progressive increase in MUC1 expression was observed through various stages and grades of bladder cancer whereas the expression of MUC4 declined with disease progression. In a subset of metastatic cases of urothelial carcinoma, the expression of MUC4 was detected.