Kong Fei, Jin Meishan, Cao Donghui, Jia Zhifang, Liu Yawen, Jiang Jing
Division of Clinical Research, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Department of Hepatology, the First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
PeerJ. 2020 Sep 16;8:e9949. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9949. eCollection 2020.
Galectins (Gal) are a family of protein that bind to the -galactoside of glycoproteins. It modulates a variety of biological functions, such as tumor growth, angiogenesis and tumor metastasis. A series of experimental and clinical evidences have been reported to support a correlation between galectin expressions and neoplastic transformation, progression and prognosis. The objective of this study was to estimate the expression of Gal-3 and Gal-9 in order to evaluate their relation to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) -related clinical features and their prognostic values.
We evaluated Gal-3 and Gal-9 expression in 247 HCC patients by a tissue microarray immunohistochemistry method, then analyzed the relationship between expression levels of Gal-3 and Gal-9 protein and tumor parameters or clinical outcomes.
The Gal-3 expression was significantly higher in tumor tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues ( < 0.001), while no significant differences of Gal-9 was detected ( = 0.222). A higher Gal-3 expression was significantly associated with lymph-vascular invasion ( = 0.049), poor histological differentiation ( = 0.016), and no cirrhosis ( = 0.040). In contrast, a lower Gal-9 expression was related to lymph-vascular invasion ( = 0.012) and poor histological differentiation ( = 0.002). Survival analysis showed that patients with higher Gal-3 expression had worse overall survival ( = 0.012) , however no correlation was found between Gal-9 expression and survival ( = 0.185). Multivariate analysis showed that multiple tumor (HR = 1.94, 95% CI [1.36-2.78]), tumor size ≥ 5 cm (HR = 1.51, 95% CI [1.07-2.12]), Lymph-vascular invasion (HR = 1.45, 95% CI [1.00-2.10]) and Gal-3 expression (HR = 1.57, 95% CI [1.06-2.33]) were independent influencing factors of prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.
Gal-3 was expected to serve as a novel prognostic marker of hepatocellular carcinoma, while Gal-9 expression was only related to tumor progression.
半乳糖凝集素（Gal）是一类能与糖蛋白的β-半乳糖苷结合的蛋白质家族。它可调节多种生物学功能，如肿瘤生长、血管生成和肿瘤转移。已有一系列实验和临床证据支持半乳糖凝集素表达与肿瘤转化、进展及预后之间存在关联。本研究的目的是评估Gal-3和Gal-9的表达情况，以评价它们与肝细胞癌（HCC）相关临床特征及其预后价值的关系。
我们采用组织芯片免疫组化方法评估了247例HCC患者中Gal-3和Gal-9的表达，然后分析了Gal-3和Gal-9蛋白表达水平与肿瘤参数或临床结局之间的关系。
与相邻的非肿瘤组织相比，肿瘤组织中Gal-3的表达显著更高（P<0.001），而未检测到Gal-9有显著差异（P = 0.222）。较高的Gal-3表达与淋巴管侵犯（P = 0.049）、组织学分化差（P = 0.016）及无肝硬化（P = 0.040）显著相关。相反，较低的Gal-9表达与淋巴管侵犯（P = 0.012）和组织学分化差（P = 0.002）相关。生存分析显示，Gal-3表达较高的患者总生存期较差（P = 0.012），然而未发现Gal-9表达与生存之间存在相关性（P = 0.185）。多因素分析显示，多灶性肿瘤（HR = 1.94，95%CI[1.36 - 2.78]）、肿瘤大小≥5 cm（HR = 1.51，95%CI[1.07 - 2.12]）、淋巴管侵犯（HR = 1.45，95%CI[1.00 - 2.10]）和Gal-3表达（HR = 1.57，95%CI[1.06 - 2.33]）是肝细胞癌患者预后的独立影响因素。
Gal-3有望作为肝细胞癌的一种新型预后标志物，而Gal-9表达仅与肿瘤进展相关。
