Galectin-1 (Gal-1) is a beta-galactose-binding lectin; its expression level has been reported to correlate with tumor progression. Gal-1 is highly expressed in the invasive front of primary tumors and in the cancer cells of metastatic lesions in the lymph nodes of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. However, the molecular mechanism of Gal-1 in tumor metastasis is not completely clear. W...

Galanin (GAL) is a 29-amino-acid residue peptide originally isolated from porcine upper small intestine. GAL exhibits various physiological activities, such as effects on hormones release, smooth muscles contractions, gastric acid secretion, neurons degeneration and feeding. One of the biological actions of GAL is the inhibition of insulin secretion from the pancreatic beta-cells. In our studie...

Prostate cancer is one of the malignant tumors which exhibit resistance to anticancer drugs, at least in part due to enhanced antiapoptotic mechanisms. Therefore, the understanding of such mechanisms should improve the design of chemotherapy against prostate cancer. Galectin-3 (Gal-3), a multifunctional oncogenic protein involved in the regulation of tumor proliferation, angiogenesis, and apopt...

The Gal/GalNAc lectin (Gal-lectin) of Entamoeba histolytica is a surface molecule involved in parasite adherence to host cells and is the most promising subunit vaccine candidate against amoebiasis. As macrophages are the major effector cells in host defense against amoebas, we studied the molecular mechanisms by which Gal-lectin activates macrophage. Microarray analysis showed that Gal-lectin ...

A notable characteristic of fungal genomes is that genes involved in successive steps of a metabolic pathway are often physically linked or clustered. To investigate how such clusters of functionally related genes are assembled and maintained, we examined the evolution of gene sequences and order in the galactose utilization (GAL) pathway in whole-genome data from 80 diverse fungi. We found tha...

Arabidopsis thaliana ga l mutants are gibberellin-responsive dwarfs. We used the genomic subtraction technique to clone DNA sequences that are present in wild-type Arabidopsis (ecotype Landsberg erecta, Ler) but are missing in a presumptive g a l deletion mutant, gal-3. The cloned sequences correspond to a 5.0-kb deletion in the gal-3 genome. Three lines of evidence indicated that the 5.0-kb de...

Ras protein is involved in a signal transduction cascade in cell growth, and cluster formation of H-Ras and human galectin-1 (Gal-1) complex is considered to be crucial to achieve its physiological roles. It is considered that the complex is formed through interactions between Gal-1 and the farnesyl group (farnesyl-dependent model), post-translationally modified to the C-terminal Cys, of H-Ras....

Hypertensive cardiac remodeling is accompanied by molecular inflammation and fibrosis, 2 mechanisms that finally affect cardiac function. At cardiac level, aldosterone promotes inflammation and fibrosis, although the precise mechanisms are still unclear. Galectin-3 (Gal-3), a β-galactoside-binding lectin, is associated with inflammation and fibrosis in the cardiovascular system. We herein inves...

Muscle degenerative diseases such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy are incurable and treatment options are still restrained. Understanding the mechanisms and factors responsible for muscle degeneration and regeneration will facilitate the development of novel therapeutics. Several recent studies have demonstrated that Galectin-1 (Gal-1), a carbohydrate-binding protein, induces myoblast differenti...

BACKGROUND Circulating Galectin-3 (Gal-3) concentrations are associated with an increased incidence of heart failure, atrial fibrillation, chronic kidney disease, and mortality. Recent evidence suggests that Gal-3 may also be an important modulator of cardiometabolic traits such as adiposity, insulin resistance, and hyperglycemia. We examined the associations of blood Gal-3 concentrations and c...