Lysozyme-rich muciphages surrounding colorectal adenomas

Muciphages are mucin-rich phagocytes believed to evolve as a result of the disruption of colorectal crypts. In a previous work we found, in rectal biopsies from patients with chronic ulcerative colitis, muciphages having not only mucin but also lysozyme, an enzyme with a potent antimicrobial activity. Recently we detected lysozyme-rich muciphages in the normal mucosa of the stalk of colonic adenomas. Filed hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) - stained sections from 30 consecutive colorectal adenomas with a stalk (lined by normal colorectal mucosa) were stained with PAS (for mucopolysaccharides), with CD68 (to label macrophages) and with lysozyme (Muramidase). Of the 30 adenomas, 16 (40%) showed muciphages in the mucosa of the stalk. Those muciphages were PAS- CD68- and lysozyme-positive. Although the significance of these findings remains elusive, it is conceivable that lysozyme-rich muciphages mirror increased cell destruction in colorectal adenomas with a high cell turnover. The possibility that lysozyme-rich muciphages surrounding adenomas are instrumental in a novel molecular mechanism of host defense, effective at the early stages of colorectal carcinogenesis, was also entertained. Such a mechanism would prevent the lateral expansion of the dysplastic epithelium of the adenoma into the surrounding normal mucosa of the stalk.