Cell surface overexpression of galectin-3 and the presence of its ligand 90k in the blood plasma as determinants in colon neoplastic lesions.
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.
Greco
Claudia
C
Clinical Pathology Service, Polo Oncologico Regina Elena, Rome, Italy.
Vona
Rosa
R
Cosimelli
Maurizio
M
Matarrese
Paola
P
Straface
Elisabetta
E
Scordati
Patrizia
P
Giannarelli
Diana
D
Casale
Vincenzo
V
Assisi
Daniela
D
Mottolese
Marcella
M
Moles
Anna
A
Malorni
Walter
W
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism*; D000236:Adenoma / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D017931:DNA Primers; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D011905:Genes, ras; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008024:Ligands; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
D017931:DNA Primers; D037502:Galectin 3; D008024:Ligands