Honors Program

Midway Honors

Date of Award

5-2015

Thesis Professor(s)

Edward Onyango

Thesis Professor Department

Health Sciences

Thesis Reader(s)

Allan Forsman, Aruna Kilaru

Abstract

Mucins are heavily glycosylated epithelial proteins. Under or overexpression of mucins may lead to several different types of dysfunctions. Mucins are under investigation as possible diagnostic markers for malignancies and other disease. This study examined the over/under expression of Mucin-3 in the presence of IP6. Three groups of six mice were fed varying levels of phytate (inositol 6-phosphate, IP6) for six days before being subjected to carbon dioxide asphyxiation. Sections of the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, stomach, and colon were collected, lysed, and the tissue proteins were prepared and analyzed by Western Blot to determine Mucin-3 expression. The hypothesis was that the presence of phytate in the digestive tract would modulate the expression of Mucin 3. Results showed that on average, Mucin 3 expression in untreated tissue was higher in areas of the duodenum and jejunum and lower in the ileum and stomach. Presence of IP6 decreased expression of Mucin 3 in the stomach by one percent in the 1g/kg phytate group while increasing in the 2g/kg phytate group by one percent. The expression of Mucin 3 in the duodenum increased fifty-five and thirty-nine percent in the 1g/kg and 2g/kg phytate groups, respectively. Jejunum Mucin 3 expression was increased by ninety percent in both 1g/kg and 2g/kg phytate groups. The ileum 0g/kg and 2g/kg phytate groups had the same expression of Mucin 3, but the 1g/kg group had a thirty-six percent decrease.

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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