Specific Expression of Human Intelectin-1 in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma and Gastrointestinal Goblet Cells

Abstract

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a fatal tumor. It is often hard to discriminate MPM from metastatic tumors of other types because currently, there are no reliable immunopathological markers for MPM. MPM is differentially diagnosed by some immunohistochemical tests on pathology specimens. In the present study, we investigated the expression of intelectin-1, a new mesothelioma marker, in normal tissues in the whole body and in many cancers, including MPM, by immunohistochemical analysis. We found that in normal tissues, human intelectin-1 was mainly secreted from gastrointestinal goblet cells along with mucus into the intestinal lumen, and it was also expressed, to a lesser extent, in mesothelial cells and urinary epithelial cells. Eighty-eight percent of epithelioid-type MPMs expressed intelectin-1, whereas sarcomatoid-type MPMs, biphasic MPMs, and poorly differentiated MPMs were rarely positive for intelectin-1. Intelectin-1 was not expressed in other cancers, except in mucus-producing adenocarcinoma. These results suggest that intelectin-1 is a better marker for epithelioid-type MPM than other mesothelioma markers because of its specificity and the simplicity of pathological assessment. Pleural intelectin-1 could be a useful diagnostic marker for MPM with applications in histopathological identification of MPM.

Circulating Omentin as a Novel Biomarker for Colorectal Cancer Risk: Data from the EPIC–Potsdam Cohort Study

“…Similar findings for omentin have also been reported with regard to other cancers, such as prostate cancer (35) and mesothelial cancer (8). Exact pathophisiological roles of omentin are not well characterized, but potentially plausible pathways as explaining mechanisms of our findings for a positive association between omentin and colorectal cancer risk include (i) acting via inducing Restricted cubic splines at the 5th, 50th, and 95th percentiles of the omentin distribution were fitted to the multivariable-adjusted regression model and likelihood ratio test was used to evaluate whether a nonlinear term of log-transformed omentin added significant information to the model.…”

“…Therefore, we refer to omentin-1 as omentin. Omentin is mainly produced in the goblet cells among the epithelial lining of organs, such as the intestines, colon, lung, and heart, and is highly abundant in human plasma circulation (6)(7)(8). Omentin expression is also observed in the mesothelial cells on adipose tissue (8).…”

“…Omentin is mainly produced in the goblet cells among the epithelial lining of organs, such as the intestines, colon, lung, and heart, and is highly abundant in human plasma circulation (6)(7)(8). Omentin expression is also observed in the mesothelial cells on adipose tissue (8). Paradoxically, while omentin is highly expressed in visceral fat tissue, circulating plasma omentin concentrations were shown to be downregulated in obesity-linked metabolic disorders, including insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and type 2 diabetes (1,9).…”

Intelectin-1 Is a Prominent Protein Constituent of Pathologic Mucus Associated with Eosinophilic Airway Inflammation in Asthma

“…Another possibility is that ITLN-1 is a component of airway mucus and contributes to pathologic mucus gel formation in disease. Supporting this possibility are studies in the gastrointestinal tract showing that ITLN-1 is a goblet cell protein that is secreted with mucus into the intestinal lumen (9). In addition, other studies in the intestine have suggested mucin-intelectin interactions that could alter the biophysical properties of mucus (10).…”

Combinatorial Peptide Ligand Library and two dimensional electrophoresis: New frontiers in the study of peritoneal dialysis effluent in pediatric patients

“…Intelectin-1 is a galactose-binding lectin that is highly expressed by mesothelial and epithelial cells' major place of expression being the small intestine [28] where it binds galactofuranosyl residues of intestinal pathogens [29,30]. Intelectin-1 levels increase during acute infections or chronic inflammation of the intestine [31,32] and in malignant mesothelioma [28].…”