Pellets were washed twice in buffer A with A-1155463 manufacturer 5% Triton X-100 and centrifuged each time. The final pellets were resuspended in 400 μl of buffer B (0.25 M sucrose, 20 mM Tris-HCl, 3 mM MgCl2, 0.4 M KCl, 5 mM DTT, pH 7.85) with 20% glycerol. Protein samples containing 40 μg/lane were separated by SDS-PAGE and transferred to nitrocellulose. Densitometric quantification of each band was performed using Gel-Pro Software (Kapelan Bio-Imaging, Leipzig, Germany) and the amount of galectin-3 in nuclei of tumor tissue relative to the amount of galectin-3 in nuclei of normal kidney tissue was calculated. 2.5 Statistical analysis Statistical analysis was performed using the Graph Pad Prism 5 software package (Graph

Pad software, La Jolla, CA). The levels of each protein in cancer and in normal kidney tissue were

expressed in scatter-plots, including means, as the ratio of the protein normalized to the sum of normal and tumor tissue. In this case densitometric Selleckchem Sepantronium values of normal or tumor tissues from each patient were divided by the sum of both. The results were statistically analyzed using Student’s t-test. P < 0.001 was considered significant. 3. Results and discussion 3.1 Histological analysis of normal, intermediate or tumor tissues For a histological evaluation of tissue samples from 39 CCRCC patients different sections of excised kidneys were fixed and stained with azan or hematoxylin/eosin (Figure 1). Here, kidney sections of either normal, intermediate or tumor tissue were analyzed. Sections from the renal cortex are characterized by a frequent occurrence of glomeruli (Figure 1A and 1D). Epithelial cells of the proximal tubules feature Farnesyltransferase microvilli on the apical surface, which leads to a diffuse appearance of the luminal side. In contrast, epithelial cells of the distal tubule are missing the brush border leading to a defined luminal cell border. Collecting ducts, on the other hand, have a larger diameter and like the distal tubule do not have a brush border on the luminal part of the tubule. This well organized and

clearly defined structure is absent in tumor tissue. Figure 1B and 1E depict transitions between normal and tumor tissue. CCRCC sections are shown in Figure 1C and 1F. This kind of tumor is known to grow as a solid tumor with neoplastic cells enriched in cytoplasmic glycogen and lipids, which provokes the clear appearance of tumor cells [15]. Collagen fibers are emphasized in the azan stained samples (Figure 1D-F). The distribution of these selleck chemical extracellular fibers, changes due to the conversion of a well-organized kidney structure into the spreading tumor (Figure 1E). Altogether, the histological appearance of CCRCC-samples used in our study corresponds to typical characteristics already described before [16]. Figure 1 Representative images of hematoxylin & eosin (HE) and azan stained human kidney tissue sections. A-C, H&E-stained kidney sections. D-F, Azan-stained kidney sections. A and D show the renal cortex of normal kidney tissue.