Quantitative immunohistochemical fingerprinting of adhesion/growth-regulatory galectins in salivary gland tumors: Divergent profiles with diagnostic potential

Myriam Remmelink , Laurence de Leval (1) , Christine Decaestecker (2) , Anaelle Duray (3) , Nicolas Sirtaine , Emerence Crompot , Sabine André , Herbert Kaltner , Xavier Leroy , Hans-Joachim Gabius , Sven Saussez (4)

1 Pathology
2 toxicology
3 laboratory of anatomy and cellular biology
4 Laboratory of Anatomy

Aims: Histopathological fingerprinting of galectins, emerging multifunctional effectors in cell sociology, is suggested to refine differential diagnosis. This hypothesis is tested for salivary tumours. Methods and results: We apply non-cross-reactive polyclonal antibodies against galectins-1, -3, -7, and -8 to immunohistochemical analysis of salivary gland tumours (72 cases with benign disease and 39 cases with malignancy, adding 29 specimens as control). The principal positivity of cases, the site of signal presence and the quantitative parameters concerning percentage of positive cells and labelling intensity were determined. Acinic cell and adenoid cystic carcinomas (specifically tubular and cribriform types) shared the expression signature of galectin-1, -3 and -8 presence combined with galectin-7 absence. Mucoepidermoid carcinomas presented a unique profile based on cytoplasmic galectin 1-3-7-8 localization in the intermediate cells. Adenomas were separable from malignancy by a consistent decrease of the Labeling Index for galectins-7 and -8 (LI Gal-7, p < 10-6; LI Gal-8, p=0.001). When present, staining for the tumour suppressor p16INK4a coincided with galectin-1 presence. Conclusions: Thus, expression profiling of the tested four galectins in salivary gland tumours revealed non-uniform staining patterns with discriminatory potency based on intracellular localization and quantitative aspects.

Mots clés: Medicine

Myriam Remmelink, Laurence de Leval, Christine Decaestecker, Anaelle Duray, Nicolas Sirtaine, et al.. Quantitative immunohistochemical fingerprinting of adhesion/growth-regulatory galectins in salivary gland tumors: Divergent profiles with diagnostic potential. Histopathology, 2011, 58 (4), pp.543. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2559.2011.03776.x⟩. ⟨hal-00624432⟩