GAL3 Protein Expression is Related to Clinical Features of Prolactin-Secreting Pituitary Microadenoma and Predicts its Recurrence after Surgical Treatment

• Published in: Cellular physiology and biochemistry Vol. 33; no. 4; pp. 1026 - 1035
• Main Authors: Dai, Dongwei, Li, Ya'nan, Lu, Qiong, Yu, Longyang, Min, Weijie, Wang, Laixing, Cao, Yiqun, Yue, Zhijian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland Cell Physiol Biochem Press GmbH & Co KG 01.01.2014
• Subjects: Adult; Animals; Apoptosis; Carcinogenesis; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Movement; Cell Proliferation; Female; Galectin 3 - antagonists & inhibitors; Galectin 3 - genetics; Galectin 3 - metabolism; Galectin-3; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Male; Mice; Mice, Nude; Middle Aged; Original Paper; Pituitary adenomas; Pituitary Neoplasms - metabolism; Pituitary Neoplasms - pathology; Pituitary Neoplasms - surgery; Prognosis; Prolactin - metabolism; Recurrence; RNA, Small Interfering - metabolism; Transplantation, Heterologous; Pituitary adenomas; Prognosis; Galectin-3
• DOI: 10.1159/000358673
• ISSN: 1015-8987; 1421-9778

Background: Previous in vitro study showed that Galectin-3 (Gal-3) protein plays an important role in pituitary tumorigenesis, however, the association of Gal-3 expression with the clinical feature and prognosis of pituitary tumor in a clinical setting remains unknown. Methods: We enrolled 220 patients with prolactin-secreting pituitary adenomas (PA) who previously had transsphenoidal pituitary surgery. The Gal-3 expression was detected in the patients' PA samples using immunohistochemistry and those patients were followed up. A prolactin-secreting PA cell line, the MMQ cell line, was used to study the in vitro effect of Gal-3 on proliferation, migration and invasion of PA cells using small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfecton technique. The in vivo tumorgenesis in nude mice was also studied. Results: We found that Gal-3 expression was not related to age and sex, but positively associated with tumor invasion (P<0.001), tumor sizes (P<0.001) and pre-operative prolactin levels (P<0.001). The multivariate Cox analysis showed that the Gal-3 expression was closely associated with the recurrence of PA after the surgical treatment (HR =3.15, P=0.002). The in vitro studies showed that Gal-3 knock-down by the siRNA technique significantly inhibited the proliferation, migration and invasion ability of the MMQ cells, whereas Gal-3 siRNA transfection induced apoptosis of the MMQ cells. The in vivo tumorgenesis assay showed that Gal-3 siRNA transfection significantly inhibited the tumor volume in vivo compared to transfection of the control siRNA (P<0.001). Conclusion: Gal-3 regulates proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of the MMQ cells. Gal-3 may be used as a tissue marker to evaluate the clinical feature and prognosis of PA patients.