%0 Journal Article %T Expression and functions of galectin-7 in ovarian cancer. %+ Institut Armand Frappier (INRS-IAF) %+ Institut de Recherche en Immunologie et en Cancérologie [UdeM-Montréal] (IRIC) %A Labrie, Marilyne %A Vladoiu, Maria Claudia %A Grosset, Andrée-Anne %A Gaboury, Louis %A St-Pierre, Yves %< avec comité de lecture %@ 1949-2553 %J Oncotarget %I Impact journals %V 5 %N 17 %P 7705-7721 %8 2014-09-15 %D 2014 %R 10.18632/oncotarget.2299 %M 25277199 %Z Life Sciences [q-bio] %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]/CancerJournal articles %X There is a critical need to develop effective new strategies for diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer. In the present work, we investigated the expression of galectin-7 (gal-7) in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells and studied its functional relevance. Immunohistochemical analysis of gal-7 expression in tissue microarrays showed that while gal-7 was not detected in normal ovarian tissues, positive cytoplasmic staining of gal-7 was detected in epithelial cells in all EOC histological subtypes but was more frequent in high grade tumors and metastatic samples. Gal-7 expression correlated with a significant difference in the overall survival of patients with ovarian serous cystadenocarcinoma. Furthermore, using human EOC cell lines, we found that gal-7 expression was induced by mutant p53. Mechanistically, Matrigel invasion assays and live cell imaging showed that gal-7 increased the invasive behavior of ovarian cancer cells by inducing MMP-9 and increasing cell motility. EOC cells can also secrete gal-7. Recombinant human gal-7 kills Jurkat T cells and human peripheral T cells, suggesting that gal-7 also has immunosuppressive properties. Taken together, our study validates the clinical significance of gal-7 overexpression in ovarian cancer and provides a rationale for targeting gal-7 to improve the outcome of patients with this disease. %G English %Z The authors wish to thank M. Jesse Tremblay, N. Doucet, and D. Gagné for their expert technical advice and Dr. T. Magnaldo, C. Vaillancour, É. Asselin, and J. Bernier for reagents and cell line. %L pasteur-01135767 %U https://riip.hal.science/pasteur-01135767 %~ RIIP %~ INRS-IAF