Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 7, 2017; 23(29): 5266-5281
Published online Aug 7, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i29.5266
Contribution of galectin-1, a glycan-binding protein, to gastrointestinal tumor progression
María L Bacigalupo, Pablo Carabias, María F Troncoso
María L Bacigalupo, Pablo Carabias, María F Troncoso, Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas (IQUIFIB), Consejo Nacional de lnvestigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires C1113AAD, Argentina
Author contributions: Bacigalupo ML and Carabias P contributed to literature search, manuscript writing; Bacigalupo ML contributed to figure composing and final revision of the article; Troncoso MF contributed to the study idea and design, manuscript writing, figure composing and final revision of the article.
Supported by CONICET (PIP-647); and UBA (Programación Científica 2016-2019, No. 20020150100005BA) to Troncoso MF.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this publication.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0
Correspondence to: María F Troncoso, PhD, Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Instituto de Química y Fisicoquímica Biológicas (IQUIFIB), Consejo Nacional de lnvestigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Junín 956, Buenos Aires C1113AAD, Argentina. fernanda@qb.ffyb.uba.ar
Telephone: +54-11-49648290 Fax: +54-11-4962-5457
Received: February 10, 2017
Peer-review started: February 14, 2017
First decision: April 21, 2017
Revised: May 4, 2017
Accepted: June 18, 2017
Article in press: June 19, 2017
Published online: August 7, 2017
Core Tip

Core tip: Gastrointestinal cancer is a group of tumors that affect multiple sites of the digestive system, including the stomach, liver, colon and pancreas. Galectin-1 (Gal-1) is a β-galactoside-binding protein with the ability to cross-link specific glycoconjugates. Accumulating evidence shows that Gal-1 in human gastric cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal cancer and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tissues is up-regulated. Moreover, high levels of this galectin correlate with tumor development, aggressiveness, metastasis, immunosupression and angiogenesis. We also highlight that alterations in Gal-1-specific glycoepitopes may be relevant for gastrointestinal cancer progression.