Frequent Downregulation of DMBT1 and Galectin-3 in Epithelial Skin Cancer

The study investigated the roles of DMBT1 and galectin‐3 in skin cancer, revealing that these proteins were frequently downregulated in epithelial skin tumors. Mutational analysis found a missense mutation in DMBT1 in 1 of 13 melanoma cell lines, while immunohistochemical analysis showed varied expression of DMBT1 and galectin‐3 in nevi and melanomas. The findings suggested that DMBT1 and galectin‐3 were unlikely to act as classical tumor suppressors in melanomas but might have tumor-suppressive effects in epithelial skin cancer through their secretion to the extracellular matrix and involvement in epithelial differentiation. This indicated a potential mechanism for their role in cancer suppression.