Galectin-3 is an independent predictor of survival in systemic sclerosis

Galectin-3 is a beta-galactoside-binding lectin that may be related to tissue sclerosis or aberrant activation of angiogenesis in systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of our study was to determine the associations between galectin-3 levels and patient characteristics, as well as to investigate the long term prognostic value of galectin-3 in a large cohort of SSc patients.

152 patients with SSc (55±11years, 138 female) were included in our follow-up study. Blood samples and clinical data were collected at baseline. Primary and secondary outcomes were all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively.

Galectin-3 levels showed positive correlation with the grade of left ventricular diastolic function (r=0.193; p=0.026), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r=0.172; p=0.036) and serum level of C-reactive protein (r=0.200; p=0.015) while negative correlation with diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (r=-0.228; p=0.006), in age, gender and BSA adjusted analyses. During the follow-up of 7.2±2.3years, 35 SSc patients (23%) died. In multivariate Cox regression analyses adjusted for age, gender, BSA, creatinine and NT-proBNP levels, galectin-3 was an independent predictor both of the all-cause mortality (HR: 2.780, 95% CI: 1.320-5.858, p=0.007) and cardiovascular mortality (HR: 3.346, 95% CI: 1.118-10.012, p=0.031). Using receiver-operating characteristic analysis, galectin-3>10.25ng/ml was found to be the best predictor of the all-cause mortality.

Our results suggest that galectin-3 is an independent predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in SSc. Validation studies are required to establish whether galectin-3 may be proposed as simple biomarker for identifying patients with high mortality risk in SSc.