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Galectin-3 in Cardiac Remodeling and Heart Failure

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An Erratum to this article was published on 01 May 2012

Abstract

Galectin-3 is a member of the galectin family, which consists of animal lectins that bind β-galactosides. Recently, a role for galectin-3 in the pathophysiology of heart failure has been suggested. It was observed that galectin-3 is specifically upregulated in decompensated heart failure compared with compensated heart failure in animal models of heart failure. This has been associated with activation of fibroblasts and macrophages, which are a hallmark of cardiac remodeling. Therefore, galectin-3 may be a culprit biomarker in heart failure. Initial clinical observations indicate that galectin-3 may be a useful biomarker for decompensated heart failure, with incremental value over well-used “pressure-dependent” biomarkers, such as B-type natriuretic peptide. Future studies should focus on galectin-3 biology to better address the usefulness of galectin-3 as a biomarker and probe the usefulness of anti-galectin-3 therapy in treating heart failure.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the Netherlands Heart Foundation (grant 2007T046 to Dr. de Boer) and the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO VENI, grant 016.106.117, also to Dr. de Boer).

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No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Division of Experimental Cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, PO Box 30.001, Groningen, 9700 RB, The Netherlands

    Rudolf A. de Boer, Lili Yu & Dirk J. van Veldhuisen

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  1. Rudolf A. de Boer
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  2. Lili Yu
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  3. Dirk J. van Veldhuisen
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Correspondence to Rudolf A. de Boer.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11897-012-0092-x

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de Boer, R.A., Yu, L. & van Veldhuisen, D.J. Galectin-3 in Cardiac Remodeling and Heart Failure. Curr Heart Fail Rep 7, 1–8 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11897-010-0004-x

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