Histochemical study of colorectal adenocarcinoma by fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) conjugated lectins

Binding of FITC conjugated lectins to mucin in benign and malignant colon lesions was studied by fluorescence microscopy. In 145 cases of colonic adenocarcinoma, PNA (peanut agglutinin) was found to be bound to 75% of cases, while DBA (dolichos biflorus agglutinin) to 13% only. By contrast, DBA was bound to 94% of normal colon mucosa, while PNA to 15% only. Chronic colitis, simple adenoma and inflammatory polyps had the same binding pattern as normal mucosa, but villous adenoma, mixed polyps and multiple polyposis which are considered as premalignant lesions in colon had high positive rate of PNA binding and low binding percentage of DBA. These results indicate that an exposed carbohydrate structure Gal B1-2----GlNAc is expressed in the mucin produced by colonic adenocarcinoma. Meanwhile, some normal mucin component disappears from the malignant colonic epithelium. The mechanism of alteration of human colonic mucin present in malignant transformation is briefly discussed.