title: Introduction to galectins.
abstract: Good evidence suggest roles of galectins in cancer, immunity and inflammation, and development, but a unifying picture of their biological function is lacking. Instead galectins appear to have a particularly diverse, bewildering but intriguing array of activities both inside and outside cells--"clear truths and mysteries are inextricably twined". Fortunately this has not discouraged but rather enthused a large number of good galectin researchers, some of which have contributed to this special issue of Glycoconjugate Journal to provide a personal, critical status of the field. Here we will give a brief introduction to the galectins as a protein family with some comments on nomenclature.
authors.affiliation: Section MIG (Microbiology, Immunology, Glycobiology), Inst Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. hakon.leffler@mig.lu.se
authors.forename: Hakon
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Leffler
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carlsson
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hedlund
authors.forename: Yuning
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Francoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Poirier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D037161:Galectins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary
chemical_list: D037161:Galectins