Decreased expression of galectin-3 is associated with metastatic potential of liver fluke-associated cholangiocarcinoma

Galectin-3, a beta-galactoside-binding lectin, is a multifunctional protein implicated in a variety of biological functions, including tumour cell adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, cancer progression and metastasis. The present study was performed to clarify the impact of galectin-3 expression on patients with liver fluke-associated cholangiocarcinoma. Galectin-3 expression was examined immunohistochemically in 53 patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, who had undergone surgery without pre-operative therapy. All bile duct epithelium expressed galectin-3 with different intensities, according to the different histological subtypes. The poorly-differentiated type expressed galectin-3 less intensely than the papillary, well- to moderately-differentiated types (P=0.012). We observed the association of low galectin-3 expression with lymphatic invasion (P=0.002). Suppression of galectin-3 expression in two human cholangiocarcinoma cell lines using siRNA targeted to galectin-3 significantly increased cell migration and invasion without alterations in cell proliferation. Regulation of galectin-3 expression may therefore be an alternative therapeutic approach to control metastasis of cholangiocarcinoma.