IMR Press / FBL / Volume 17 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.2741/3937

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review
A distinctive role for galectin-7 in cancer ?
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1 INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, Universite du Quebec, 531 Blvd des Prairies, Laval, Quebec, Canada, H7V 1B7
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2012, 17(2), 438–450; https://doi.org/10.2741/3937
Published: 1 January 2012
Abstract

The galectins are a family of evolutionay-conserved carbohydrate-binding proteins. They are distributed widely in all living organisms and have been implicated in many essential functions including development, differentiation, cell-cell adhesion, cell-matrix interaction, growth regulation, apoptosis. Several members of the galectin family have also been shown to be involved in cancer progression and metastasis. In the case of galectin-7, several studies have reported alterations in its expression pattern during cancer progression. In a variety of tumors, its expression can range from being completely down-regulated to highly up-regulated. Accordingly, its precise role in this field is still debated. The evidence shows that galectin-7 may promote or inhibit cancer development. In this article, we review the data concerning expression and roles of galectin-7 in cancer and propose a comprehensive view of its contribution during cancer progression.

Keywords
Galectins
Apoptosis
Mammary Cancer
Mammary Myoepithelial Cells
p53
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