Reduced galectin-3 expression is an indicator of unfavorable prognosis in gastric cancer.
BACKGROUND
Galectin-3 (gal-3) participates in a variety of biological events, including cell adhesion, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of gal-3 expression with clinicopathological findings and prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.


METHODS
Gal-3 and Ki-67 expressions were assessed by immunohistochemistry in 115 patients with gastric cancer. PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP)-sequence analysis and the levels of gal-3 mRNA were also examined.


RESULTS
The present study demonstrated that gal-3 expression was correlated with nodal status, lymphatic inivasion, pathological stage and histological parameters. On the other hand, gal-3 expression did not correlate with the expression of Ki-67. Reduced expression of gal-3 was significantly associated with a poor prognosis and multivariate analysis showed that gal-3 expression was an independent prognostic factor. On PCR-SSCP-sequence analysis, 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected in the gal-3 gene, but none showed mutations.


CONCLUSIONS
Reduced gal-3 expression was associated with lymph node metastasis, advanced stage and tumor differentiation in gastric cancer. Gal-3 expression could be a useful prognostic factor in gastric cancer.
Okada
Kohji
K
Department of General Surgical Science (Surgery 1), Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi 371-8511, Japan. okako@med.gunma-u.ac.jp
Shimura
Tatsuo
T
Suehiro
Taketoshi
T
Mochiki
Erito
E
Kuwano
Hiroyuki
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery
D037502:Galectin 3; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D012333:RNA, Messenger