Glycobiology Advance Access originally published online on October 10, 2008
Glycobiology 2009 19(1):68-75; doi:10.1093/glycob/cwn105
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Genetic assessment of the importance of galectin-3 in cancer initiation, progression, and dissemination in mice
3 Institut Jacques Monod, UMR CNRS 7592, Univ. P6 and P7, 2 Place Jussieu, 75251 Paris Cedex 5, France
4 Department of Pathology, Angiogenesis Laboratory, School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands
5 Department of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
6 Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) Hôpital R. Debré, Service de Chirurgie Pédiatrique, Paris, France
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Tel: +33-1-44-27-40-35; Fax: +33-1-44-27-52-65; E-mail: poirier{at}ijm.jussieu.fr
Received on May 2, 2008; revised on September 24, 2008; accepted on October 1, 2008
The galectin family of β-galactoside binding lectins is involved in normal and pathological processes. Altered expression of galectin-3 has been described in many cancers, and studies of cancer cell lines have implicated this lectin in various aspects of the tumorigenic cascade. The goal of this report was to directly assess the importance of galectin-3 in tumor biology by introducing the galectin-3 null mutation (galectin-3–/–) into mouse lines genetically programmed to develop cancers. We used two mouse models of human intestinal cancer, the ApcMin and Apc1638N lines, to study tumor initiation and tumor progression. We also crossed the galectin-3–/– mice with PyMT transgenic animals, a model in which primary mammary gland tumors give rise to lung metastases at high frequency. Unexpectedly, we show that the absence of galectin-3 does not affect the evolution of the disease in any of these three situations.
Key words: Apc mutations / galectin-3 knock-out mice / metastasis / PyMT transgenic / tumor progression
2 Both authors equally contributed to the work.