Loss of galectin-3 expression correlates with clear cell renal carcinoma progression and reduced survival.
OBJECTIVE
Galectin-3 is a member of the glycoprotein family, actively involved in various biological interactions including cell growth, cell adhesion, cell differentiation and apoptosis. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of galectin-3 in clear cell renal carcinoma and to assess its prognostic significance.


METHODS
The expression of galectin-3 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 149 clear cell renal carcinomas. The levels were correlated to established clinical parameters such as nuclear grade, pathological stage, lymph node, distant metastasis, and patients' survival.


RESULTS
In normal kidney tissue, the expression of galectin-3 was found to be uniformly present in the tubular epithelial cells. A decrease of antigen expression levels were significantly associated with higher T-stages (P < 0.02), unfavourable long-term prognosis in univariate Kaplan-Meier (P < 0.007) and multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses (P < 0.04). Univariate analysis could demonstrate an association with tumor-specific death with decreased galectin-3 expression, whereas multivariate analysis failed to prove the aforementioned observation.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that a loss of galectin-3 expression is involved in renal carcinogenesis.
Merseburger
Axel S
AS
Department of Urology, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany. amerseburger@web.de
Kramer
Mario W
MW
Hennenlotter
Jörg
J
Serth
Jürgen
J
Kruck
Stephan
S
Gracia
Alfredo
A
Stenzl
Arnulf
A
Kuczyk
Markus A
MA
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D037502:Galectin 3