Galectin-3 in tumor metastasis

Galectin-3, previously described as IgE binding-protein, CBP35, CBP30, Mac-2, L-29, L-31, L34 and other names, is one of endogenous beta-galactoside-binding proteins which is expressed broadly in normal and neoplastic cells. Although biological functions of galectin-3 remain largely in veil, a numerous number of trials to clarify them have been made, resulting in the elucidation of a possible involvement of galectin-3 in biological phenomena including cell growth and adhesion. It has been shown that galectin-3 expression correlates with neoplastic transformation in some type of cells. However, inconsistent and varying amounts of galectin-3 expression in tumors of the same origin reflect heterogenicity of tumor cells, and thus assume no relevance of galectin-3 in the definitive diagnosis of malignancy. In this regard northworthy is the recent findings showing that expression of galectin-3 is uniformly elevated with neoplastic progression in certain malignancies, and therefore, galectin-3 is expected to serve as a reliable tumor marker. Here we describe the evidence for galectin-3 to play a key role in tumor metastasis.