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Updated: Jul 1, 2026

Systematic Scoring Analysis for Intestinal Inflammation in a Murine Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Colitis Model
Published on: February 14, 2021
Roles of galectins in inflammatory bowel disease
Akira Hokama1, Emiko Mizoguchi, Atsushi Mizoguchi
1Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Control and Prevention of Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, 207 Uehara, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0215, Japan. hokama-a@med.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
Abstract:
Protein/carbohydrate interactions through specific protein families termed lectin control essential biological processes. Galectins, a family of animal lectins defined by shared amino acid sequence with affinity for beta-galactosides, appear to be functionally polyvalent in a wide range of biological activity. Recent studies have identified immunoregulatory roles of galectins in intestinal inflammatory disorders. Galectin-1 and galectin-2 contribute to the suppression of intestinal inflammation by the induction of apoptosis of activated T cells, whereas galectin-4 is involved in the exacerbation of this inflammation by specifically stimulating intestinal CD4+ T cells to produce IL-6. We review how different members of the galectins provide inhibitory or stimulatory signals to control intestinal immune response under intestinal inflammation.
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