Adhesion/growth-regulatory tissue lectin galectin-1 in relation to angiogenesis/lymphocyte infiltration and prognostic relevance of stromal up-regulation in laryngeal carcinomas.
BACKGROUND
Galectin-1 has been found to modulate lymphocyte invasion in inflammation and to be involved in angiogenesis in models, thus prompting examination of its clinical relevance in laryngeal cancer.


METHODS
Immunohistochemical processing of tissue sections (n=53) from patients with stage I/II (n=35) and stage IV (n=18) laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) with a specific anti-galectin-1 antibody and monitoring of CD45/CD31 positivity was combined with quantitative morphometric analysis.


RESULTS
Lectin presence in the tumor and endothelial cells was positively correlated, while a negative relationship to the number of CD45-positive lymphocytes was demonstrated. No association was seen with the extent of neovascularization. The mean optical density (MOD) of lectin-dependent staining in the tumor stroma was significantly increased compared to normal stroma.


CONCLUSIONS
Galectin-1 was not associated with angiogenesis in the studied cohort while galectin-1 in endothelial cells may negatively influence lymphocyte invasion and the mean optical density for the stromal galectin-1 signal is up-regulated in tumors.
Saussez
Sven
S
Laboratory of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Mons-Hainaut, Mons, Belgium. sven.saussez@umh.ac.be
Decaestecker
Christine
C
Cludts
Stéphanie
S
Ernoux
Perle
P
Chevalier
Dominique
D
Smetana
Karel
K
André
Sabine
S
Leroy
Xavier
X
Gabius
Hans-Joachim
HJ