Expression of galectin-3 correlates with apoptosis in pituitary adenoma cells
Chui-Xue HUANG1, Yong-Hong HOU2, Yun-Sheng LIU2
1 Department of Neurosurgery, Hainan Province People's Hospital, Haikou 570311, China
2 Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China
Abstract
Objective
To investigate the expressions of Galectin-3 (Gal-3), Bcl-2 and Bax in human pituitary adenomas, and to explore the interrelation among them.
Methods
RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry were applied to detect the mRNA and protein expressions of Gal-3, Bcl-2 and Bax in surgically excised human pituitary adenoma tissues, including invasive and non-invasive pituitary adenomas, and the correlation analysis was performed.
Results
The Gal-3 and Bcl-2 expressions in the invasive pituitary group were significantly higher than those in the non-invasive group, and the expression of Bax had no significant difference between the two groups. Pearson’s correlation analyses showed that the Gal-3 expression was positively correlated with Bcl-2, but was not correlated with Bax, which was inversely correlated with expression of Bcl-2.
Conclusion
Gal-3 may function through a cell death inhibition pathway involving Bcl-2 to enhance cell proliferation, which result in the invasive growth of pituitary adenoma. These Results indicate that Gal-3 has an important role in pituitary tumor cell proliferation and may serves as a possible therapeutic target in treatment of pituitary tumors.
Keywords
pituitary neoplasma; galectin-3; apoptosis; invasiveness
