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Mol. Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on April 20, 2007
Molecular Human Reproduction 2007 13(6):405-408; doi:10.1093/molehr/gam022
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Pregnancy-associated CA125 antigen as mucin: evaluation of ferning morphology

M.M. Jankovic1 and B.S. Milutinovic

Institute for the Application of Nuclear Energy – INEP, University of Belgrade, 11080 Zemun-Belgrade, Serbia

1 Correspondence address. E-mail: miraj{at}inep.co.yu

CA125 antigen is a high molecular mass, structurally heterogeneous, mucin-type molecule expressed during embryonic development as well as in adult human tissues. This study was aimed at investigating its mucin-related property of ferning, as a general complementary way of characterization. Pregnancy-associated CA125 antigen (pCA125) was examined using light, transmission and scanning electron microscopy and compared with cancer-derived CA125 antigen (cCA125). The results obtained for spread-out, air-dried pCA125 and cCA125 samples revealed clear differences in the patterns of crystalline as well as amorphous material. Thus, the fern-like crystals were mainly sparsely distributed and their morphology was atypical. The extent of crystallization of pCA125 was moderately lower than that of cCA125 antigen, whereas variation in the size and spatial organization of fern crystals was evident. Besides the material with a crystalline appearance, differences in the organic substrate were also noticeable. In contrast to the sponge-like appearance of pCA125, cCA125 had a more compact structure. These initial data may be relevant for relating biochemical properties of CA125 antigen with its morphology as a basis for elucidating its still obscure function under different physiological conditions.

Key words: CA125/ferning/microscopy/mucin

Submitted on January 29, 2007; resubmitted on March 5, 2007; accepted on March 8, 2007.


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