Expression of mucins in the mucosal surface of small intestines in 1 week-old pigs.

The aim of this study was to determine the immunoexpression of mucins in jejunal and ileal villous epithelium using six antibodies against MUC1, MUC2, MUC4 MUC5AC, MUC5B and MUC6. The immunohistochemical score for MUC1 has significantly intense staining compared with MUC2 (P=0.008) and the immunohistochemical socre for MUC4 and MUC 6 has significantly intense staining compared with MUC2 (P=0.032) in ileal villous surface. The immunohistochemical score for MUC4 (P=0.008), MUC5AC (P=0.016) and MUC6 (P=0.016) in ileal villous surface has significantly intense staining compared with ileal cryptic surface. The results of this study demonstrated that six mucins gave distinctly different expression patterns throughout the 1 week-old porcine small intestinal tract.