Avădănei Elena-Roxana, Căruntu Irina-Draga, Amalinei Cornelia, Păvăleanu Ioana, Giușcă Simona-Eliza, Rusu Andreea, Lozneanu Ludmila
Department of Morphofunctional Sciences I-Histology, "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 16 University Street, 700115 Iasi, Romania.
Department of Pathology, Infectious Diseases "Saint Parascheva" Clinical Hospital, 700116 Iasi, Romania.
Biomedicines. 2024 Jan 28;12(2):303. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines12020303.
Ovarian cancer (OC) still registers a high prevalence in female gynecological pathology. Given the aggressiveness of the tumor and the lack of response to conventional therapies, a current research interest is the identification of new prognostic markers. Gal-8, a member of the galectin family of molecules, involved in tumorigenesis, disease progression, and metastasis, has been assigned as a valuable tumor prognostic factor, and its inhibition may open new perspectives in cancer therapeutic management. Few studies have been carried out so far to evaluate OCs' galectin profiles. Our study aimed to characterize the Gal-8 profile in different types of ovarian neoplasia and to demonstrate its prognostic value. Our study group comprised 46 cases of OCs that were histologically and immunohistochemically investigated, introduced to Gal-8 immunoreactivity, qualitatively and semi-quantitatively evaluated, and correlated with clinicopathological characteristics. Gal-8 immunoexpression was identified in tumor epithelial cells, showing a dominant nuclear labeling, followed by cytoplasmic and mixed, nuclear, and cytoplasmic labeling. Significant differences between tumor histotypes were found in the statistical analysis between low and high Gal-8 immunoscore levels and clinicopathological features: HGSC (.= high-grade serous carcinoma) vs. LGSC ( = low-grade serous carcinoma), pathogenic types (type I vs. type II), and tumor grades. Our results reflect Gal-8 expression variability depending on the histological type and subtype, the progression stages, and the degree of differentiation of ovarian tumors, supporting its value as a prognostic factor. Our findings open perspectives for larger studies to validate our results, along with a potential Gal-8 transformation into a future therapeutic target.
卵巢癌（OC）在女性妇科病理学中仍然具有较高的发病率。鉴于肿瘤的侵袭性以及对传统疗法缺乏反应，当前的研究热点是寻找新的预后标志物。半乳糖凝集素-8（Gal-8）是半乳糖凝集素分子家族的成员之一，参与肿瘤发生、疾病进展和转移，已被视为一种有价值的肿瘤预后因素，对其抑制作用可能为癌症治疗管理开辟新的前景。到目前为止，很少有研究评估卵巢癌的半乳糖凝集素谱。我们的研究旨在描述不同类型卵巢肿瘤中的Gal-8谱，并证明其预后价值。我们的研究组包括46例经组织学和免疫组织化学研究的卵巢癌病例，对其进行Gal-8免疫反应性检测，进行定性和半定量评估，并与临床病理特征相关联。Gal-8免疫表达在肿瘤上皮细胞中被识别，表现为主要的核标记，其次是胞质和混合的核与胞质标记。在低和高Gal-8免疫评分水平与临床病理特征之间的统计分析中，发现肿瘤组织学类型之间存在显著差异：高级别浆液性癌（HGSC）与低级别浆液性癌（LGSC）、致病类型（I型与II型）以及肿瘤分级。我们的结果反映出Gal-8表达的变异性取决于组织学类型和亚型、进展阶段以及卵巢肿瘤的分化程度，支持其作为预后因素的值。我们的发现为更大规模的研究开辟了前景，以验证我们的结果，同时也为Gal-8潜在地转化为未来的治疗靶点提供了可能。
