Expression of galectin-3 correlates with apoptosis in pituitary adenoma cells.
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ABSTRACT: To investigate the expressions of Galectin-3 (Gal-3), Bcl-2 and Bax in human pituitary adenomas, and to explore the interrelation among them.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.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. Pearsonos 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.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.
SUBMITTER: Huang CX
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5552520 | biostudies-other | 2008 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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