Miyazaki Junichi, Hokari Ryota, Kato Shingo, Tsuzuki Yoshikazu, Kawaguchi Atushi, Nagao Shigeaki, Itoh Kazuro, Miura Soichiro
Second Department of Internal Medicine, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan.
Oncol Rep. 2002 Nov-Dec;9(6):1307-12.
Galectin-3, a multifunctional beta-galactocide binding lectin possibly participates in a variety of biological events including cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. The implication of galectin-3 during malignancy progression has been suggested in several cancers, including colon, prostate, thyroid, and breast cancer, however, scarce data are available in gastric cancer. We examined the expression of galectin-3 in 86 primary gastric cancers and the 40 metastatic lymph nodes by immunohistochemistry to explore whether it is related to the malignant progression. Positive galectin-3 expression was observed in 84% of the gastric cancer cases. In enhanced cells of cancerous lesions, 48% showed stronger nuclear immunoreactivity than cytoplasmic one, whereas adjacent epithelial cells showed little or weak nuclear immunoreactivity. When galectin-3 expression in gastric carcinoma was compared with that in gastric tissues adjacent to the cancers, there was a significant difference. The degree of enhancement of immunoreactivity was different corresponding to various histopathological subtypes in cancer tissues. A significantly stronger expression of galectin-3 in cancer tissues was only observed in papillary and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. When galectin-3 expression and tumor progression (TNM staging) was compared, a significant correlation was observed in overall cases, and only in poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma the galectin-3 expression correlated with tumor progression among various subtypes. Galectin-3 expression was observed significantly stronger in metastatic lymph nodes than in the primary gastric cancers, and also in these cases among histological subtypes, only in poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, the expression of galectin-3 in metastatic lymph nodes was stronger than the primary cancer. In conclusion galectin-3 might be a useful tumor marker for gastric cancers with respects to tumor progression and potentiality of lymph node metastasis especially in certain histological types of gastric cancer.
半乳糖凝集素-3是一种多功能β-半乳糖苷结合凝集素，可能参与包括细胞增殖、分化和凋亡在内的多种生物学过程。在包括结肠癌、前列腺癌、甲状腺癌和乳腺癌在内的几种癌症中，已经提示了半乳糖凝集素-3在恶性肿瘤进展过程中的作用，然而，关于胃癌的相关数据却很少。我们通过免疫组织化学检测了86例原发性胃癌和40个转移性淋巴结中半乳糖凝集素-3的表达，以探讨其是否与恶性进展相关。在84%的胃癌病例中观察到半乳糖凝集素-3阳性表达。在癌灶的增强细胞中，48%显示核免疫反应性强于细胞质，而相邻上皮细胞核免疫反应性弱或无。当比较胃癌组织与癌旁胃组织中半乳糖凝集素-3的表达时，存在显著差异。癌组织中免疫反应性增强的程度因不同的组织病理学亚型而异。仅在乳头状腺癌和低分化腺癌中观察到癌组织中半乳糖凝集素-3的表达明显更强。当比较半乳糖凝集素-在总体病例中观察到显著相关性，并且仅在低分化腺癌中，在各种亚型中半乳糖凝集素-3的表达与肿瘤进展相关。在转移性淋巴结中观察到半乳糖凝集素-3的表达明显强于原发性胃癌，并且在这些病例的组织学亚型中，也仅在低分化腺癌中，转移性淋巴结中半乳糖凝集素-3的表达强于原发性癌。总之，半乳糖凝集素-3可能是胃癌肿瘤进展和淋巴结转移潜能的有用肿瘤标志物，尤其是在某些组织学类型的胃癌中。
