Absence of galectin-3 does not affect the development of experimental tongue carcinomas in mice

作者：de Faria Paulo Rogerio; Chammas Roger; de Melo Thaissa Lopes; Hsu Daniel K; Liu Fu Tong; Nonogaki Suely; Cardoso Sergio Vitorino; Loyola Adriano Mota^*

来源：Experimental and Molecular Pathology, 2011, 90(2): 189-193.

DOI：10.1016/j.yexmp.2010.12.007

• Oral carcinogenesis
• Galectin-3
• Tongue
• Mice
• Premalignant lesions
• Oral squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Galectin-3 is a lectin that presents pivotal roles in tumor biology and there are no studies evaluating their expression in dysplasias and carcinomas developed from tongue carcinogenesis models.
Aims: To investigate the role of galectin-3 in the development of tongue carcinomas using a mouse model of oral carcinogenesis.
Methods: Galectin-3-deficient (gal3(-/-)) and wild-type (gal3(+/+)) mice were challenged with 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide in drinking water for 16 weeks and killed at different times. Tongues were removed and the number of dysplasias and carcinomas was counted. An immunohistochemical study for galectin-3 was performed only in the tongue from gal3(+/+) mice.
Results: In both groups, a reduction of dysplasias and an increase of carcinomas from week 16 to week 32 (p > 0.05) were observed. A predominance of high cytoplasmic and nuclear galectin-3 expression was observed in carcinomas (64.7%) and dysplasias (55.5%), respectively (p > 0.05). The perilesional areas always presented a statistical cytoplasmic and nuclear galectin-3 overexpression.
Conclusions: Absence of galectin-3 did not directly affect the process of carcinogenesis and a cytoplasm shift of galectin-3 seems to be associated with development of tongue carcinomas.

• 出版日期2011-4