ABSTRACT
Inborn errors of metabolism often present with a variety of psychiatric symptoms. With improved diagnosis and treatment options, many patients have increased lifespans; consequently, issues of long-term quality of life are coming to the forefront. Mental health concerns are among these issues. To demonstrate the connection between the course of metabolic disease and its psychiatric manifestations, four different inborn errors of metabolism are reviewed: phenylketonuria, Wilson disease, acute intermittent porphyria, and metachromatic leukodystrophy.
Subject(s)
Hepatolenticular Degeneration/psychology , Leukodystrophy, Metachromatic/psychology , Mental Disorders/etiology , Metabolism, Inborn Errors/psychology , Phenylketonurias/psychology , Porphyria, Acute Intermittent/psychology , HumansABSTRACT
Galectin-1 has been implicated in the process of vertebrate developmental regulation. Sodium butyrate is an established differentiation-inducing agent and has been shown to increase galectin-1 expression in colon carcinoma cells. We studied the roles of butyrate and galectin-1 in the induction of differentiation and apoptosis in the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Treatment of LNCaP cells with butyrate resulted in induction of galectin-1 expression in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Treatment with butyrate also resulted in inhibition of proliferation, morphologic changes consistent with a differentiated phenotype, and induction of apoptosis. Prostate specific antigen expression was transiently reduced. To determine which of these effects might be secondary to the induction of galectin-1, LNCaP cells were transfected with a galectin-1 expression vector. The transfected cells displayed growth inhibition and an increased rate of apoptosis. PSA expression was not affected. We conclude that galectin-1 may be responsible for many of the phenotypic changes resulting from butyrate treatment and may function downstream in the pathway of butyrate-induced differentiation. We also found PSA to be somewhat inconsistent as an indicator of differentiation of LNCaP cells, likely due to other factors influencing its expression.
Subject(s)
Apoptosis/drug effects , Butyrates/pharmacology , Hemagglutinins/biosynthesis , Prostatic Neoplasms/pathology , Cell Differentiation/drug effects , Galectin 1 , Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic , Hemagglutinins/genetics , Humans , Male , Prostatic Neoplasms/genetics , Signal Transduction/drug effects , Transfection , Tumor Cells, CulturedABSTRACT
Galectin-1 and galectin-3 are beta-galactoside-binding proteins thought to be important for cellular interactions, growth regulation and differentiation. Alterations in cellular content of galectins have been associated with differentiation, transformation and malignant progression. We examined the modulation of galectin-1 and galectin-3 expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell lines by treatment with sodium butyrate, a known differentiation-modulating agent, and identified potential mechanisms of butyrate regulation of galectin-1 levels in one of the cell lines. Sodium butyrate effected an increase in galectin-1 protein concentration in 5 of 8 cell lines. One cell line, MDA-886LN, showed a marked time- and dose-dependent increase from barely detectable amounts with butyrate treatment. Concurrently with increased galectin-1 expression, butyrate treatment promoted morphologic changes, induced growth inhibition and inhibited soft agar colony formation in MDA-886LN cells. Butyrate-treated MDA-886LN cells demonstrated increased galectin-1 mRNA content, suggesting a role for butyrate in transcriptional regulation of galectin-1 expression. Treatment with other inhibitors of histone deacetylase also induced an increase in galectin-1 expression. Together, our results indicate that butyrate treatment can modulate galectin-1 content in MDA-886LN HNSCC cells as well as induce morphologic changes and growth inhibition. This action may involve a combination of transcriptional regulation and inhibition of histone deacetylation.
