Endogenous galectin-1 plays a key role in inflammatory bowel disease

MOROSI, LUCIANO; MORALES, ROSA; TOSCANO, MARTA A; RABINOVICH, GABRIEL A.; MARIÑO, KARINA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; GlycoAr 2014; 2014

FIL/IFIBIME/IBYME

Our laboratory investigates the role of glycans and their interaction with endogenous lectins in the development and resolution of chronic inflammatory diseases, with a particular interest in IBD. Galectin-1 (Gal-1), a glycan-binding protein that recognizes N- and O-glycans bearing the disaccharide N-acetyllactosamine (Galβ(1-4)-GlcNAc) exerts protective and immunomodulatory activity in TNBSinduced colitis (Santucci et al., 2003). With the overarching goal of studying the role of endogenous Gal-1 in mucosal homeostasis and intestinal immunoregulation and validating its therapeutic activity in IBD, we optimized a model of 2,4,6-Trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis and evaluated the clinical outcome of wild-type and Gal-1 knock-out (Lgals1-/-) mice in the C57BL/6 background. Validation of the anti-inflammatory activity of Gal-1 in this model may allow the examination of cell surface glycosylation in cellular compartments of the mucosal microenvironment and the identification of Gal-1 function, revealing a potential target for the treatment of human IBD. Assessment of the clinical score of TNBS-injected mice revealed increased clinical severity in Lgals1-/- compared to WT mice, as shown by total weight loss and colon weight/length ratio (p