title: Absence of galectin-3 does not affect the development of experimental tongue carcinomas in mice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Galectin-3 is a lectin that presents pivotal roles in tumor biology and there are no studies evaluating their expression in dysplasias and carcinomas developed from tongue carcinogenesis models.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the role of galectin-3 in the development of tongue carcinomas using a mouse model of oral carcinogenesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Galectin-3-deficient (gal3(-/-)) and wild-type (gal3(+/+)) mice were challenged with 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide in drinking water for 16weeks and killed at different times. Tongues were removed and the number of dysplasias and carcinomas was counted. An immunohistochemical study for galectin-3 was performed only in the tongue from gal3(+/+) mice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both groups, a reduction of dysplasias and an increase of carcinomas from week 16 to week 32 (p>0.05) were observed. A predominance of high cytoplasmic and nuclear galectin-3 expression was observed in carcinomas (64.7%) and dysplasias (55.5%), respectively (p>0.05). The perilesional areas always presented a statistical cytoplasmic and nuclear galectin-3 overexpression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Absence of galectin-3 did not directly affect the process of carcinogenesis and a cytoplasm shift of galectin-3 seems to be associated with development of tongue carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, Faculdade de Medicina, Uberaba, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paulo Rogério
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: de Faria
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chammas
authors.forename: Thaissa Lopes
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: de Melo
authors.forename: Daniel K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Fu-Tong
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Suely
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nonogaki
authors.forename: Sérgio Vitorino
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Cardoso
authors.forename: Adriano Mota
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Loyola
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051379:Mice; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D037502:Galectin 3; C485095:Lgals3 protein, mouse