In patients with UC, a precancerous lesion of colon cancer, the expression of MUC2 was decreased, while in MUC2–/– mice, the early phase of spontaneous colitis was caused by a defective mucus barrier and subsequent contact of bacteria with the intestinal epithelium (Wenzel et al., 2014). The gene discussed is MUC2; the disease is malignant colon neoplasm.