Description
Galectin-8, also known Gal-8 and PCTA-1, is a member of the Galectin family which selectively binds ß-galactoside residues. The galectins have been implicated in many essential functions including development, differentiation, cell-cell adhesion, cell-matrix interaction, growth regulation, apoptosis and RNA splicing. Galectins lack a typical signal peptide and can be localized to the cytosolic compartments where they have intracellular functions, however, via unknown, non-classical pathways, they can be secreted extracellularly. Gal-8 is expressed in liver, kidney, cardiac muscle, lung and brain. It is also widely expressed in tumoral tissues, such as lung and prostate carcinomas (1). It binds to a subset of cell surface integrins to modulate ECM-integrin interactions (2). As a soluble ligand, Gal-8 can inhibit cell adhesion, however, immoblized Gal-8 has been shown to promote cell adhesion (3). Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been identified (4)