[The involvement of galectin-1 in implantation and pregnancy maintenance at the maternal-fetal interface]

Minyue Tang1, Yimin Zhu2

  • 1Department of Reproductive Endocrinology, Women's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310006, China.

As a member of galectins family, galectin-1(Gal-1)is widely expressed in tissues and cells, and participates in a variety of physiological and pathological processes, such as cell adhesion, proliferation, apoptosis and inflammatory reaction. Recently, it has been found that Gal-1 is highly expressed at the maternal-fetal interface and plays important roles in trophoblast cell proliferation, differentiation and invasion, endometrial receptivity, placental angiogenesis and maternal-fetal immune tolerance. In this review, we outline the expression of Gal-1 at the maternal-fetal interface and the involvement of Gal-1 in embryo implantation and pregnancy maintenance, to provide novel insights for the early diagnosis, prognostic assessment and treatment of early pregnancy loss and pregnancy-related diseases.

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