Glycobiology Advance Access originally published online on May 12, 2004
Glycobiology 2004 14(9):783-792; doi:10.1093/glycob/cwh092
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Glycobiology vol. 14 no. 9 © Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved.
Cell surface overexpression of galectin-3 and the presence of its ligand 90k in the blood plasma as determinants in colon neoplastic lesions
2 Clinical Pathology Service, Polo Oncologico Regina Elena, Rome, Italy; 3 Laboratory of Ultrastructures, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy; 4 Surgical Department, Polo Oncologico Regina Elena, Rome, Italy; 5 Department of Drug Research and Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy; 6 Pathological Anatomy Service, Polo Oncologico Regina Elena, Rome, Italy; 7 Service of Statistics, Polo Oncologico Regina Elena, Rome, Italy; 8 Digestive Endoscopy Service, Polo Oncologico Regina Elena, Rome, Italy; and 9 Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
Received on March 5, 2004; revised on April 23, 2004; accepted on April 27, 2004
Galectins are a family of beta-galactoside binding molecules involved in cell–extracellular matrix adhesion processes. Specifically, Galectin-3 (Gal-3), one of the members of this family of molecules plays a role in cell adhesion processes as well as in cell survival or apoptosis. Gal-3 was also hypothesized to represent a useful tool in tumor characterization, for example, in thyroid tumors. We report herein the results obtained by evaluating Gal-3 expression of colon cells from human adenomas and adenocarcinomas with two different methodologies: immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry of living dispersed cells. We found that (1) the expression of Gal-3 was significantly increased on the surface of cells from adenomas with respect to normal mucosa from the same patient; (2) Gal-3 ligand, 90k molecule, was increased in the blood plasma from patients with both adenomatous and adenocarcinomatous lesions; and (3) Gal-3 overexpression was not related with the presence of K-ras mutation. Altogether these results clearly indicate that the evaluation of Gal-3 expression (and of its ligand, 90k) can be of interest in the characterization of nonmalignant and malignant colon cancers.
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed; e-mail: malorni{at}iss.it
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