High serum levels of galectins 1 and 4 in osteoarthritis patients

Abstract

Although immunostaining of galectins is associated with cartilage damage, the serum levels of these lectins in osteoarthritis (OA) are not fully understood. Therefore, we evaluate the concentrations of galectins-1, 3, 4, and 7 in patients with osteoarthritis and correlate them with clinical parameters. This cross-sectional study involved 60 osteoarthritis patients and 43 healthy volunteers, who had serum samples collected for galectins titration by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). Our finds showed that the median values of gal-1 and 4 serum levels in patients were statistically higher (13,990 and 969.1pg/mL, respectively) than in healthy controls (1,798 and 519.5pg/mL) with p<0.001. Further, gal-1 expressed higher levels in patients who had joint edema at the time of collection with a median value of 14,970pg/mL. Surprisingly, galectin-4 appears to be involved in the osteoarthritis inflammation process as the well-known galectin-1.