Cell surface overexpression of galectin-3 and the presence of its ligand 90k in the blood plasma as determinants in colon neoplastic lesions

Abstract

Galectins are a family of beta-galactoside binding molecules involved in cell--extracellular matrix adhesion processes. Specifically, Galectin-3 (Gal-3), one of the members of this family of molecules plays a role in cell adhesion processes as well as in cell survival or apoptosis. Gal-3 was also hypothesized to represent a useful tool in tumor characterization, for example, in thyroid tumors. We report herein the results obtained by evaluating Gal-3 expression of colon cells from human adenomas and adenocarcinomas with two different methodologies: immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry of living dispersed cells. We found that (1) the expression of Gal-3 was significantly increased on the surface of cells from adenomas with respect to normal mucosa from the same patient; (2) Gal-3 ligand, 90k molecule, was increased in the blood plasma from patients with both adenomatous and adenocarcinomatous lesions; and (3) Gal-3 overexpression was not related with the presence of K-ras mutation. Altogether these results clearly indicate that the evaluation of Gal-3 expression (and of its ligand, 90k) can be of interest in the characterization of nonmalignant and malignant colon cancers.

Inhibitory effect of modified citrus pectin on liver metastases in a mouse colon cancer model

“…Galectin-3, a member of the lectin family, is a multifunctional oncogenic protein which regulates cell growth, adhesion [9] , proliferation and apoptosis, as well as cell-cell interaction and angiogenesis [10][11][12][13] . A large body of evidence has confirmed that metastatic cancer cells significantly express galectin-3, and high expression of galectin-3 can be detected in both primary and metastatic lesions [14] , even in blood [15] , showing a strong relation with cancer growth and metastasis [16][17][18] . Moreover, the expression of galectin-3 can be used as a diagnostic and prognostic marker of colorectal cancer [19][20][21] .…”

“…Positive control group 15 and aggregation between cancer cells will be intercepted. In addition, MCP can inhibit morphogenesis of endothelial cells and angiogenesis by blocking galectin-3, thus intercepting cancer cells to absorb nutrition from vessels and cancer progression [24,25] .…”

Tumor‐associated antigen 90K/Mac‐2‐binding protein: Possible role in colon cancer

“…The presence of galectin-3 within the underlying stroma of colonic mucosa [Greco et al, 2004] and the basolateral expression of TAA90K in some colon tumors suggest that co-localization of TAA90K and galectin-3 within the basement membrane alters colon tumor cell adhesion to galectin-3 and/or extracellular matrix proteins and contributes to tumor progression, galectin-3 being a pro-metastatic factor in a tumor model [Bresalier et al, 1998]. Since galectin-3 is also present within luminal secretions of colonic polyps [Greco et al, 2004], a pattern which parallels TAA90K expression in colon tumors, it is also possible that association of these proteins leads to signaling events at the apical face of colon cancer cells which contribute to cancer progression. In rat cardiac fibroblasts, for instance, galectin-3 is the signal for enhanced collagen production resulting in a three-fold preference of collagen I over collagen III [Sharma et al, 2004].…”

“…TAA90K is a secreted glycoprotein of 90-100 kDa expressed in normal human fluids [Koths et al, 1993], epithelial cells [Jallal et al, 1995] and elevated in the serum of cancer patients [Iacobelli et al, 1993Ozaki et al, 2002;Greco et al, 2004] and patients afflicted with viral infections . Northern blotting and immunohistochemical analyses have revealed elevated expression of TAA90K in pancreatic, breast, and lung cancers [Fusco et al, 1998;Kü nzli et al, 2002;Marchetta et al, 2002;Ozaki et al, 2002] and, in the cases of lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma, protein levels correlated with metastasis and predicted survival [Marchetta et al, 2002;Ozaki et al, 2002] or disease manifestation [Singhal et al, 2003], respectively.…”

Studies on the role of goat heart galectin-1 as a tool for detecting post-malignant changes in glycosylation pattern

“…The remarkable role played by galectins ranging from cell signaling to apoptosis make them potent tumorigenic molecules, and have been reported to be over-expressed quite often in cancerous cells and cancer associated stromal cells (Lahm et al, 2004). This altered expression of galectins correlates with the acquisition of metastatic phenotype and tumor aggressiveness, indicating toward the potential ability of galectins in the modulation of tumor progression thus influencing the outcome of the disease (Greco et al, 2004).…”