Anti-LGALS3 polyclonal antibody, Biotin

Preoperative diagnosis of thyroid nodules reduces unnecessary surgery. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may contain information of primary tumor(s). We asked whether the peripheral blood expression of genes specific for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) differentiates benign thyroid nodules from malignant nodules. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from thyroid nodule patients (n = 20) were isolated preoperatively and the expression of seven CTC-associated genes was measured in patients with thyroid nodule(s) (n = 20). Among the tested genes, the expression of SLC5A5 and LGALS3 were validated in a larger number of patients (n = 64) and our results show that SLC5A5 expression differentiated follicular adenomas from follicular carcinomas (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.831). The expression of SLC5A5 in CTCs may preoperatively distinguish thyroid follicular adenomas from follicular carcinomas.

Galectin-3, a beta-galactoside-binding lectin, is a multifunctional protein implicated in a variety of biological functions, including tumour cell adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, cancer progression and metastasis. The present study was performed to clarify the impact of galectin-3 expression on patients with liver fluke-associated cholangiocarcinoma. Galectin-3 expression was examined immunohistochemically in 53 patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, who had undergone surgery without pre-operative therapy. All bile duct epithelium expressed galectin-3 with different intensities, according to the different histological subtypes. The poorly-differentiated type expressed galectin-3 less intensely than the papillary, well-to moderately-differentiated types (P = 0.012). We observed the association of low galectin-3 expression with lymphatic invasion (P = 0.002). Suppression of galectin-3 expression in two human cholangiocarcinoma cell lines using siRNA targeted to galectin-3 significantly increased cell migration and invasion without alterations in cell proliferation. Regulation of galectin-3 expression may therefore be an alternative therapeutic approach to control metastasis of cholangiocarcinoma. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.