Increased expression of the LGALS3 (Galectin 3) gene in human non-small-cell lung cancer

Patients with lung cancer have a poor prognosis because of the high metastatic potential of the neoplasm. Therefore, identifying new molecular targets for anti‐metastatic therapy is very important. To identify novel key factors of tumor metastasis in lung cancer, we established the gene expression profiles of two adenocarcinoma cell line variants, PC9/f9 and PC9/f14, by use of genome‐wide human cDNA microarray analysis and comparing these profiles with that of the parental cell line, PC9. The PC9/f9 and PC9/f14 cell lines were selected for analysis because of their high metastatic potential. We identified five genes in the highly metastatic cell lines that showed a significantly enhanced or reduced expression and that had not been reported to be involved in metastasis of lung cancer. One of the overexpressed genes that was identified encoded the β‐galactoside–binding protein LGALS3 (Galectin 3). LGALS3 has been reported to be overexpressed in a variety of human cancers, but not in lung cancer, and to be involved in tumor metastasis. We examined the expression of LGALS3 by use of real‐time quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction in 38 lung cancer cell lines and in tumor tissue obtained by thoracoscopic biopsy. A population (10/30) of the non–small‐cell lung cancers examined was found to overexpress the LGALS3 gene at levels three times higher than those of normal epithelial cells. In contrast, all small‐cell lung cancers either failed to express the gene or expressed it at a very low level. The mean of the relative expression of the LGALS3 gene in non–small‐cell lung cancer (3.065 ± 3.976) was significantly higher than those of small‐cell lung cancer (0.02 ± 0.03) (P < 0.025). This is the first report of alterations of LGALS3 gene expression in lung cancer. These results, together with the previous reports on Galectin 3 function, suggest that Galectin 3 may play a role in the process of metastasis in non–small‐cell lung cancer that overexpresses Galectin 3, but not in small‐cell cancer. Accordingly, LGALS3 may be a phenotypic marker that excludes small‐cell lung cancer and may represent a novel target molecule in non–small‐cell lung cancer therapy. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.