TITLE:
Galectin-3 expression favors metastasis in murine melanoma
AUTHORS:
Andréia Neves Comodo, Andre Luis Lacerda Bachi, Maria Fernanda Soares, Marcello Franco, Vicente de Paulo Castro Teixeira
KEYWORDS:
Melanoma; Galectin-3; Wnt Signaling; ß-Catenin; Metastasis
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology,
Vol.4 No.10B,
October
8,
2013
ABSTRACT: 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.