Figure 3.

Monocyte migration induced by galectin-3 is potentiated in the presence of laminin and fibronectin, but not vitronectin. Polycarbonate filters of a transwell system were coated with laminin, fibronectin, or vitronectin as described in Section 2 and used to assay the monocyte migration induced by soluble hrGal-3 (0.01 µM). Monocytes (5 × 10⁴ cells) were added into inserts and allowed to migrate for 40 min at 37°C. Medium was used as negative control and immobilized hrGal-3 as positive. The chemoattractant activity of sGal-3 in concert with laminin or fibronectin was tested in the absence (a) or presence of 10 mM lactose or sucrose (b). The number of migrating monocytes was counted in five fields for each condition assayed in triplicate. Data are reported as mean of monocytes per field ± SEM sGal-3, soluble Gal-3; iGal-3, immobilized Gal-3; Lam, laminin; Fibr, fibronectin; Vitro, vitronectin. ***P < 0.001 compared to iGal3 in (a), and ***P < 0.001 or **P < 0.01 compared to sGal-3 plus laminin or fibronectin in the presence of PBS in (b). Results are representative from three independent assays.