Background and objective: Galectin-3 is involved in many physical and pathologic process, and is closely correlated with tumorigenesis, development and metastasis. The aim of this study is to investigate the gene expression and significance of Galectin-3 in normal lung tissue and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissue.
Methods: Gene expression was examined using the immunohistochemical S-P method in 62 NSCLC cases and in 17 cases with normal lung tissue. RT-PCR verified the expression of Galectin-3 at the transcriptional level.
Results: The expression rate of Galectin-3 in NSCLC tissue was 83.8% (52/62), which was significantly higher than that in normal lung tissue (P<0.01). Galectin-3 expression was not correlated with sex (χ²=0.113, P>0.05), age (χ²=0.220, P>0.05), and histological type (χ²=0.012, P>0.05), but was negatively correlated with pathological differentiation (r=-0.292, P<0.05) and positively correlated with the clinical stage (r=0.336, P<0.05) in NSCLC tissue. RT-PCR results showed that the expression level of Galectin-3 in NSCLC tissue was significantly higher than in normal lung tissue.
Conclusions: Galectin-3 may be useful in lung cancer diagnosis and may increase diagnosis rate when combined with other lung cancer markers.
背景与目的 半乳凝素-3（Galectin-3）参与许多生理和病理过程，与肿瘤的发生、发展、转移关系密切。本研究旨在探讨Galectin-3在非小细胞肺癌（non-small cell lung cancer, NSCLC）中的表达情况及其与临床病理特征间的关系，探索其在NSCLC发生、发展中的作用。方法 采用S-P免疫组化方法检测62例NSCLC组织和17例正常肺组织中Galectin-3的表达情况，并用RT-PCR方法在转录水平进行验证，并结合相关的临床病理资料进行分析。结果 免疫组化结果显示Galectin-3在83.8%（52/62）的NSCLC组织中阳性表达。NSCLC组织中Galectin-3表达阳性率明显高于正常肺组织（χ2=7.936, P<0.01），其在癌组织中的表达与患者年龄、性别和病理分型无关。Galectin-3与肿瘤的分化程度（χ2=8.577, P<0.05）和临床分期（χ2=5.287, P<0.05）相关，其中与分化程度（r=-0.292, P<0.05）的表达呈负相关，与临床分期（r=0.336, P<0.05）的表达呈正相关。RT-PCR结果显示，Galectin-3在NSCLC组织中的表达明显高于正常肺组织，随访结果表明Galectin-3高表达者总生存小于低表达者（P=0.045)。结论 Galectin-3可能是肺癌诊断的重要辅助基因，Galectin-3有望与肺癌其它标志物联合检查以提高诊断率，提示患者预后。