Meta-Analysis Interest Group, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, Shenyang, Liaoning, China (mainland).
Department of Physical Examination Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China (mainland).
Med Sci Monit. 2020 Aug 3;26:e923901. doi: 10.12659/MSM.923901.
An increasing number of studies have explored the activities and functions of galectins. However, translation of these researches into clinical practice seems to be lacking. As compared to scattered individual studies, meta-analyses can provide a more comprehensive review of current evidence and reach a more unbiased and powered conclusion by synthesizing data from diverse studies. In this paper, findings from meta-analyses were reviewed to establish the role of galectins in diagnosis and prognostic assessment of various human diseases. First, in patients with cancer, galectin-1 expression is often associated with poorer survival, but galectin-9 expression is associated with better survival. Galectin-3 is a diagnostic biomarker for thyroid cancer and a predictor of worse survival in patients with colorectal cancer and improved survival in patients with gastric cancer. Second, galectin-3 is useful for diagnosis and prognostic assessment of heart failure and prediction of atrial fibrillation and its recurrence. Third, in chronic kidney disease, galectin-3 is valuable for predicting poor survival. Fourth, during pregnancy, galectin-13 is potentially helpful for identifying patients who do not have preeclampsia.
越来越多的研究探索了半乳糖凝集素的活性和功能。然而，这些研究似乎在转化为临床实践方面存在不足。与零散的个体研究相比，荟萃分析可以通过综合来自不同研究的数据，更全面地回顾现有证据，并得出更客观、更有力的结论。本文综述了荟萃分析的结果，以确定半乳糖凝集素在各种人类疾病的诊断和预后评估中的作用。首先，在癌症患者中，半乳糖凝集素-1 的表达通常与较差的生存相关，而半乳糖凝集素-9 的表达与较好的生存相关。半乳糖凝集素-3 是甲状腺癌的诊断生物标志物，也是结直肠癌患者生存较差和胃癌患者生存改善的预测因子。其次，半乳糖凝集素-3 可用于心力衰竭的诊断和预后评估以及心房颤动及其复发的预测。第三，在慢性肾脏病中，半乳糖凝集素-3 对预测不良预后有价值。第四，在妊娠期间，半乳糖凝集素-13 可能有助于识别没有子痫前期的患者。
