Multiple Hepatic Receptors Cooperate to Eliminate Secretory Mucins Aberrantly Entering the Bloodstream: Are Circulating Cancer Mucins the “Tip of the Iceberg”?

Hollow organs lined by columnar epithelial cells normally secrete mucins and their proteolytic fragments vectorially into the lumen. These heterogeneously O-glycosylated molecules are known to aberrantly enter the bloodstream in the setting of epithelial carcinomas and possibly during injury or i…