Galectin-3 expression favors metastasis in murine melanoma

作     者：Andreia Neves Comodo Andre Luis Lacerda Bachi Maria Fernanda Soares Marcello Franco Vicente de Paulo Castro Teixeira 

作者机构：Departamento de PatologiaUniversidade Federal de Sao PauloSao PauloBrasil Departamento de MicrobiologiaImunologia e ParasitologiaUniversidade Federal de Sao PauloSao PauloBrasil 

出 版 物：《Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology》 (生命科学与技术进展（英文）)

年 卷 期：2013年第4卷第10期

页      面：55-62页

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100214[医学-肿瘤学] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Melanoma Galectin-3 Wnt Signaling β-Catenin Metastasis 

摘      要：Galectin-3 is a member of the lectin family that binds β-galactosides and plays an important role in several types of tumors. Melanoma is an invasive cancer responsible for 80% of deaths associated to skin cancers. There are some evidences that galectin-3 interacts with β-catenin, a molecule involved with Wnt signaling pathway. Here, we evaluate the role of galectin-3 intumor growth and metastasis, as well as its interaction with β-catenin. Murine melanoma cells (B16F10) were injected subcutaneously and intravenously in male C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) and galectin-3 knock-out (KO) mice. Tumor growth and lung melanoma colonies were assessed. The expression of galectin-3 and β-catenin was evaluated by immuno-histochemistry. We observed that tumor growth did not differ between the groups. However, to metastasis, the number of lung colonies in WT mice was significantly increased in comparison to that observed in KO mice. The cytoplasm expression of galectin-3 was observed in subcutaneous and metastatic tumors,w in both groups. We observed its nuclear expression in some of subcutaneous tumors of KO mice. The expression of β-catenin was detected in cell membrane of all subcutaneous tumors analyzed, whereas in the metastatic tumors we observed both cytoplasm and cell membrane staining. Altogether, our data suggest that galectin-3 favors the metastasis of melanoma cells and this process is not associated with β-catenin.