Konstantinov K N, Robbins B A, Liu F T
Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Am J Pathol. 1996 Jan;148(1):25-30.
Galectin-3 is a member of a newly named family of beta-galactoside-binding animal lectins, which has been described with a number of possible important biological functions, including the regulation of cell growth and association with tumor transformation. This protein has a wide tissue distribution but is notably not expressed by normal lymphocytes. We have previously shown that galectin-3 is markedly up-regulated in HTLV-I-infected T cells, most likely mediated by the viral transactivating protein Tax. In this study, we surveyed various lymphomas by immunohistochemistry and found the expression of galectin-3 in all of the 8 cases of Ki-1+ anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL). Immunoreactivity for galectin-3 was found in a majority of the neoplastic cells in the ALCLs studied. In contrast, only 2 of the 35 cases of other types of lymphoma, including various Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, were positive. Unlike the cases of ALCL, immunoreactivity for galectin-3 in these 3 cases was found only sporadically in a small number of neoplastic cells. Thus, galectin-3 may prove to be a useful marker for ALCL and its expression in neoplastic cells in ALCL may contribute to the biological behavior of this specific type of lymphoma.
半乳糖凝集素-3是新命名的β-半乳糖苷结合动物凝集素家族的成员，已被描述具有许多可能的重要生物学功能，包括调节细胞生长以及与肿瘤转化相关。这种蛋白质在组织中广泛分布，但正常淋巴细胞中明显不表达。我们之前已经表明，在人嗜T淋巴细胞病毒I型（HTLV-I）感染的T细胞中，半乳糖凝集素-3明显上调，最有可能是由病毒反式激活蛋白Tax介导的。在本研究中，我们通过免疫组织化学对各种淋巴瘤进行了检测，发现在所有8例Ki-1+间变性大细胞淋巴瘤（ALCL）中半乳糖凝集素-3均有表达。在所研究的ALCL中，大多数肿瘤细胞对半乳糖凝集素-3呈免疫反应性。相比之下，在包括各种霍奇金淋巴瘤和非霍奇金淋巴瘤在内的35例其他类型淋巴瘤中，只有2例呈阳性。与ALCL病例不同，这3例中对半乳糖凝集素-3的免疫反应性仅在少数肿瘤细胞中偶见。因此，半乳糖凝集素-3可能被证明是ALCL的一个有用标志物，其在ALCL肿瘤细胞中的表达可能有助于这种特定类型淋巴瘤的生物学行为。
