earticle

영어

Galectin-1, a family of carbohydrate-binding proteins with a high affinity for 0 -galactosides, is differentially expressed by various normal and tumor tissues and appears to function in tumor progression and metastasis through the intracellular and extracellular activity. Here, we demonstrated that galectin -1 is increased in gastric malignant tissues and supports cancer sternness. Silencing of galectin-1 decreased the cancer sphere formation, side population, invasion and migration, whereas overexpression of galectin-1 increased them. We monitored changes in gene expression in galectin -1 silenced cells, employing DNA microarray analysis. The expression level of SOX2 and NANOG, a sternness-regulating transcriptional factor, was significantly decreased and confirmed by RT-PCR and western blot analysis. Interestingly, we determined the interaction between galectin-1 and SOX2. however, galectin-1 couldn't interact with 0-GlcNAcylation mutant SOX2. We predicted N -acetylglucosamine binding amino acid at galectin-1, and R71 and R74 is important to recognize 0-GlcNAcylation of SOX2. Overexpression of R71A and R74A mutant galectin-1 didn't increases cancer sternness property, such as cancer sphere formation, side population. Taken together, we suggest that galectin-1 interacts with SOX2 through 0-GlcNAcylation and increases SOX2 transcriptional activation and sternness character in gastric cancer progression.