[Serum and tissue expressions of galectin-3 in hepatocellular carcinoma and the clinical significances].

Objective To study the expression of Galectin-3 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues and the clinical value of serum Galectin-3 in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods Immunohistochemistry method was used to detect the expression of Galectin-3 in the 46 pairs of HCC tissues and their paracancerous tissues. The relationship between expression levels of Galectin-3 and clinical parameters was analyzed. Serum Galectin-3 in different liver diseases were measured with ELISA. The sensitivity and specificity of galectin-3, alpha fetoprotein (AFP) and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase Ⅱ (GGT-Ⅱ)for diagnosis of HCC were compared and the complementary diagnostic values of Galectin-3 and AFP and GGT-Ⅱ for HCC were studied. Results (1) The positive rate of Galectin-3 in the tissue of HCC was 78.2%, dramatically higher than that in paracancerous tissues (15.2%) (P < 0.01). The expression levels were correlated with differentiation and with the high expression in poor differentiation tissues; (2) Based on ROC curve, the cut-off of serum Galectin-3 for HCC diagnosis was set as 0.62 μg/L, the serum galectin-3 positive rate was 64.5% in HCC cases, which was apparently higher than that in liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis and healthy persons (P < 0.05); (3) Serum Galectin-3 was not correlated with AFP and GGT-Ⅱ. Combined determination of the three markers had the complementary diagnostic value for HCC and might increase the diagnostic sensitivity to 94.7%. Conclusion Galectin-3 is overexpressed in HCC tissues and is correlated with the tumor differentiation, suggesting that Galectin-3 may be associated with the carcinogenesis and development of HCC. Serum galectin-3 increases in the HCC cases and combined determination of serum Galectin-3, AFP and GGT-Ⅱ can increase the diagnostic efficiency for HCC. Galectin-3 could be a novel serum tumor marker for HCC. Key words: Carcinoma hepatocellular;  Diagnosis;  Galectin-3;  Alpha-fetoprotein;  Gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase