Galectins‐1 and ‐3 in Human Intervertebral Disc Degeneration: Non‐Uniform Distribution Profiles and Activation of Disease Markers Involving NF‐κB by Galectin‐1

Abstract

Degeneration of the human intervertebral disc (IVD) is assumed to underlie severe clinical symptoms, in particular chronic back pain. Since adhesion/growth‐regulatory galectins are linked to arthritis/osteoarthritis pathogenesis by activating a pro‐degradative/‐inflammatory gene expression signature, we hypothesized a similar functional involvement of galectins in IVD degeneration. Immunohistochemical evidence for the presence of galectins‐1 and ‐3 in IVD is provided comparatively for specimens of spondylochondrosis, spondylolisthesis, and spinal deformity. Immunopositivity was detected in sections of fixed IVD specimens in each cellular compartment with age‐, disease‐, and galectin‐type‐related differences. Of note, presence of both galectins correlated with IVD degeneration, whereas correlation with age was seen only for galectin‐3. In addition, staining profiles for these two galectins showed different distribution patterns in serial sections, an indication for non‐redundant functionalities. In vitro, both galectins bound to IVD cells in a glycan‐dependent manner. However, exclusively galectin‐1 binding triggered a significant induction of functional disease markers (i.e., IL6, CXCL8, and MMP1/3/13) with involvement of the nuclear factor‐kB pathway. This study thus gives direction to further network analyses and functional studies on galectins in IVD degeneration. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Orthopaedic Research® published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Orthopaedic Research Society. J Orthop Res 37:2204–2216, 2019

CircRNA RERE Promotes the Oxidative Stress-Induced Apoptosis and Autophagy of Nucleus Pulposus Cells through the miR-299-5p/Galectin-3 Axis

“…Interestingly, we found the expression of galectin-3 was significantly upregulated in the H 2 O 2 -induced NP cells. As previous reported, galectin-3 was aberrantly expressed in IDD [ 7 , 10 , 36 ] and inhibition of galectin-3 alleviates the spinal cord injury and IDD [ 7 , 8 ]. Galectin-3 is involved in two coordinated pathways of programmed cell death, apoptosis, and autophagy [ 37 ], suggesting that galectin-3 may be involved in the H 2 O 2 -induced apoptosis and autophagy of NP cells.…”

Establishment of a human three-dimensional chip-based chondro-synovial coculture joint model for reciprocal cross talk studies in arthritis research

“…Tissue and organoid specimens were fixed in 7% paraformaldehyde, dehydrated in ethanol and paraffinembedded according to standard in-house procedures. 35 Paraffin sections of approx. 2.5 μm thickness were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) for morphological evaluations.…”

“…RNA was reverse transcribed into cDNA (Firma und Kit einfügen) and subsequent RT-qPCR was performed on a QuantStudio3 QPCR system (Applied Biosystems, Thermo Fisher) using SensiMix SYBR Green Master Mix as previously described. 35 Primer sequences are described in ESI † Table S3.…”

“…This is in line with previous studies on VEGF secretion increase of chondrocytes cultivated under nonphysiological conditions. 35,36,42…”

Galectin network in osteoarthritis: galectin-4 programs a pathogenic signature of gene and effector expression in human chondrocytes in vitro

“…In-Cell Western (ICW) assay. The ICW assay was performed using the Odyssey Imaging System (LI-COR Biosciences) according to a previously described protocol (Elshamly et al 2019 ). In brief, chondrocytes were grown in 96-well plates, and starved cells underwent Gal-4 (50 µg/ml) treatment for 1 h. Cells were washed and fixed with methanol (–20 °C) for 10 min.…”