Galectins are thought to be prognosticators for survival in renal cell cancer. However, the biological activity of galectin-3 (Gal-3) in renal carcinoma cells is still debated. In this study, immunohistochemical staining confirmed a high expression of Gal-3 in tumor tissue from renal cell carcinoma.
Critically, Gal-3 expression was related to tumor cell differentiation. Consistent with Gal-3 expression in renal cell cancer, strong expression of Gal-3 was also observed in several renal tumor cell lines but not in normal renal cells. A Gal-3 high-expression cell line Caki-1 was chosen to study the biological activity of Gal-3. Using short hairpin RNA method, Gal-3 expression in Caki-1 cells was knocked down. We evidenced that Gal-3 knockdown inhibited cell proliferation and invasion, induced Caspase-3-dependent apoptosis and arrested cell cycle at G1 phase. Mechanically, Cyclin D1 expression decreased, but p27 increased after Gal-3 knockdown. Taken together, these results suggest that Gal-3 is related to the development of renal cell cancer and could serve as a target to therapy renal cell cancer.
Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N. J. ). 2016 Feb 03 [Epub ahead of print]
Yangyang Xu, Changfu Li, Jiahang Sun, Jingshu Li, Xin Gu, Wanhai Xu
Cancer Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150000, China. , Cancer Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150000, China. , The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150086, China. , The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150086, China. , Cancer Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150000, China The Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, 150081, China