β-1,4-Galactosyltransferase III enhances invasive phenotypes via β1-integrin and predicts poor prognosis in neuroblastoma.

Purpose: Neuroblastoma (NB) is a neural crest-derived tumor that commonly occurs in childhood. β-1,4-Galactosyltransferase III (B4GALT3) is highly expressed in human fetal brain and is responsible for the generation of poly- N -acetyllactosamine, which plays a critical role in tumor progression. We therefore investigated the expression and role of B4GALT3 in NB. Experimental Design: We examined B4GALT3 expression in tumor specimens from 101 NB patients by immunohistochemistry and analyzed the correlation between B4GALT3 expression and clinicopathologic factors or survival. The functional role of B4GALT3 expression was investigated by overexpression or knockdown of B4GALT3 in NB cells for in vitro and in vivo studies. Results: We found that B4GALT3 expression correlated with advanced clinical stages ( P = 0.040), unfavorable Shimada histology ( P P Conclusions: Our findings suggest that B4GALT3 predicts an unfavorable prognosis for NB and may regulate invasive phenotypes through modulating glycosylation, degradation, and signaling of β1-integrin in NB cells. Clin Cancer Res; 19(7); 1705–16. ©2013 AACR .