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MUC1 gene polymorphism does not explain the different incidence of gastric cancer in Portugal and Denmark

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 1999

F. CARVALHO ,
A. PEIXOTO ,
R. STEFFENSEN ,
A. AMORIM ,
L. DAVID  and
M. SOBRINHO-SIMÕES
F. CARVALHO
Affiliation:
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, IPATIMUP, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200 Porto, Portugal
A. PEIXOTO
Affiliation:
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, IPATIMUP, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200 Porto, Portugal
R. STEFFENSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Blood Transfusion and Clinical Immunology, Aalborg Hospital, PO Box 561, DK-9100, Aalborg, Denmark
A. AMORIM
Affiliation:
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, IPATIMUP, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200 Porto, Portugal Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, 4050 Porto, Portugal
L. DAVID
Affiliation:
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, IPATIMUP, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200 Porto, Portugal Medical Faculty of University of Porto, 4200 Porto, Portugal
M. SOBRINHO-SIMÕES
Affiliation:
Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, IPATIMUP, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias s/n, 4200 Porto, Portugal Medical Faculty of University of Porto, 4200 Porto, Portugal
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Abstract

MUC1 is a highly polymorphic mucin type glycoprotein expressed on the surface of many epithelia, including gastric mucosa, and is present in several body fluids and mucous secretions. A genetic polymorphism due to variation in length of a 60 bp tandemly repeated sequence domain constitutes more than half of the coding region of the glycoprotein. We demonstrated previously in a Portuguese population sample that the frequency of small MUC1 alleles is increased in patients with gastric carcinoma, suggesting that the possession of small MUC1 alleles confers increased risk for gastric carcinoma development. This finding raised the possibility that the very high prevalence of gastric carcinoma in Portugal could be partly due to a high frequency of small MUC1 alleles in the Portuguese population. In the present study we compared the MUC1 allele distribution in a population of Danish blood donors with the distribution in a population of Portuguese blood donors. The frequency of small MUC1 alleles was significantly higher in the Danish than in the Portuguese sample, thus failing to lend support to the hypothesis that a relatively higher frequency of the small MUC1 alleles might account for the high prevalence of gastric carcinoma in Portugal when compared to Denmark.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annals of Human Genetics , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , May 1999 , pp. 187 - 191
Copyright
© University College London 1999

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