title: [Serum and tissue expressions of galectin-3 in hepatocellular carcinoma and the clinical significances].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the expression of Galectin-3 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and the clinical value of serum Galectin-3 in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemistry method was used to detect the expression of Galectin-3 in the 46 pairs of HCC tissues and their para cancerous tissues. The relationship between expression levels of Galectin-3 and clinical parameters was analyzed. Serum Galectin-3 in different liver diseases were measured with ELISA. The sensitivity and specificity of galectin-3, alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase II (GGT-II) for diagnosis of HCC were compared and the complementary diagnostic values of Galectin-3 and AFP and GGT-II for HCC were studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  (1) The positive rate of Galectin-3 in the tissue of HCC was 78.2%, dramatically higher than that in para cancerous tissues (15.2%) (P is less than 0.01). The expression levels were correlated with differentiation and with the high expression in poor differentiation tissues; (2) Based on ROC curve, the cut-off of serum Galectin-3 for HCC diagnosis was set as 0.62mug/L, the serum galectin-3 positive rate was 64.5% in HCC cases, which was apparently higher than that in liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis and healthy persons (P is less than 0.05); (3) Serum Galectin-3 was not correlated with AFP and GGT-II. Combined determination of the three markers had the complementary diagnostic value for HCC and might increase the diagnostic sensitivity to 94.7%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Galectin-3 is overexpressed in HCC tissues and is correlated with the tumor differentiation, suggesting that Galectin-3 may be associated with the carcinogenesis and development of HCC. Serum galectin-3 increases in the HCC cases and combined determination of serum Galectin-3, AFP and GGT-II can increase the diagnostic efficiency for HCC. Galectin-3 could be a novel serum tumor marker for HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Qing-qing
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Run-zhou
authors.initials: RZ
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Ming-bing
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Cui-hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D037502:Galectin 3 / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D044967:Serum / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D037502:Galectin 3