Fol. Biol. 2009, 55, 145-152
Immunohistochemical Fingerprinting of the Network of Seven Adhesion/Growth-Regulatory Lectins in Human Skin and Detection of Distinct Tumour-Associated Alterations
Glycans of natural glycoconjugates are considered as a source of biological information relevant to cell adhesion or growth. Sugar-based messages are decoded and translated into responses by endogenous lectins. This mechanism assigns a func tional dimension to tumour-associated changes of glycosylation. Conse quently, it calls for mapping the lectin presence in tumours. Such an analysis has so far com monly been performed with the scope to determine expression of a few dis tinct proteins, e.g. from the effector family of galectins with focus on galectins-1 and -3. Due to the emerging evidence for functional divergence among galectins it is timely to address the challenge to evaluate their presence beyond these few family members. Having raised a panel of non-cross-reactive antibodies against seven human galectins covering all three subfamilies, we de scribe their expression profiles in human skin. Comparison of normal and ma lignant tissues enabled us to de fine galectintype-dependent alterations, arguing in favour of distinct function alities. It is concluded that comprehensive monitoring performed to define the different aspects of the galectin network, as documented in this pilot study, is advisable for future histopathologic studies aimed at delineating clinical correlations.
Keywords
apoptosis, galectin, glycohistochemistry, glycoprotein, integrin, stroma, sugar code.
Funding
This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (project No. MSM 0021620806), the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience (Tokyo, Japan) and an EC Marie Curie Research Training Network grant (contract No. HRTN-CT-2005-019561).
References
Copyright
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
