title: Galectins: Double-edged Swords in the Cross-roads of Pregnancy Complications and Female Reproductive Tract Inflammation and Neoplasia.
abstract: Galectins are an evolutionarily ancient and widely expressed family of lectins that have unique glycan-binding characteristics. They are pleiotropic regulators of key biological processes, such as cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, signal transduction, and pre-mRNA splicing, as well as homo- and heterotypic cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. Galectins are also pivotal in immune responses since they regulate host-pathogen interactions, innate and adaptive immune responses, acute and chronic inflammation, and immune tolerance. Some galectins are also central to the regulation of angiogenesis, cell migration and invasion. Expression and functional data provide convincing evidence that, due to these functions, galectins play key roles in shared and unique pathways of normal embryonic and placental development as well as oncodevelopmental processes in tumorigenesis. Therefore, galectins may sometimes act as double-edged swords since they have beneficial but also harmful effects for the organism. Recent advances facilitate the use of galectins as biomarkers in obstetrical syndromes and in various malignancies, and their therapeutic applications are also under investigation. This review provides a general overview of galectins and a focused review of this lectin subfamily in the context of inflammation, infection and tumors of the female reproductive tract as well as in normal pregnancies and those complicated by the great obstetrical syndromes.
authors.affiliation: Perinatology Research Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Detroit, MI, USA ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA ; Institute of Enzymology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest, Budapest, Hungary ; Maternity Private Department, Kutvolgyi Clinical Block, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hangary ; First Department of Pathology and Experimental Cancer Research, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Nandor Gabor
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Than
authors.affiliation: Perinatology Research Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.affiliation: Perinatology Research Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Detroit, MI, USA ; Department of Immunology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balogh
authors.affiliation: Institute of Enzymology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest, Budapest, Hungary ; Department of Immunology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Karpati
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Salvatore Andrea
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mastrolia
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Orna
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Staretz-Chacham
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Sinuhe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.affiliation: Perinatology Research Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Detroit, MI, USA ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA ; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Offer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Erez
authors.affiliation: Maternity Private Department, Kutvolgyi Clinical Block, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hangary.
authors.forename: Zoltan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Papp
authors.affiliation: Perinatology Research Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Detroit, MI, USA ; Department of Pathology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ; Department of Pathology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Chong Jai
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Alarmin; Epigenomics; Maternal-fetal interface; Neoplasms; Sex steroids