Hierarchical and selective roles of galectins in hepatocarcinogenesis, liver fibrosis and inflammation of hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Involvement of galectins in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma

Galectin member	Expression	Function and/or effect	Model	Ref.
Galectin-1	Up-regulated (mRNA and protein) in HCC, secreted by tumor hepatocytes and accumulated in stroma surrounding HCC	Correlates with tumor aggressiveness, metastases and enhanced risk of post-operative recurrence	Human HCC tissues	[79-82]
		Favors HCC cell adhesion to ECM, cell migration and invasion	Human HCC cell lines	[81,85]
		Increases tumor growth and metastasis in draining-tumor lymph nodes	Nude mice injected with galectin-1 over-expressing HepG2 cells	[85]
		Possible role in the suppression of antitumor immune responses	Human HCC tissues	[82]
Galectin-3	Up-regulated (mRNA and protein) in HCC. Transactivation of murine LGALS3 promoter can occur by HBV-X protein.		Human HCC tissues and cell lines	[79,124,125]
	High nuclear expression	Correlates with histological differentiation and vascular invasion	Human HCC tissues	[126]
	Up-regulated in HCC-associated capillary endothelial cells	Probably promotes angiogenesis	Tumor-associated endothelial cells isolated from rats	[128]
Galectin-4	Higher expression in HCC than normal tissues		Human HCC tissues and cell lines	[154]
Galectin-8	Diminished expression in hepatoblastoma and hepatocarcinoma		Human HCC tissues	[159]
Galectin-9	Downregulated in HCC	Galectin-9 suppression promotes cell proliferation and adhesion to ECM, tumor cell-endothelial cell adhesion and trans-endothelial invasion of HepG2 cells.	Human cell lines	[181]
		Downregulation of galectin-9 represents a risk factor for patient survival, correlates with tumor histopathological grade, vascular invasion and metastasis	Human HCC tissues	[181]

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; ECM: Extracellular matrix; HBV: Hepatitis B virus.