Galectin-3 in fibrosis and heart failure

Heart failure (HF) is the most common cardiovascular disorder as a chronic، progressive and disabling disease. The prevalence and incidence of the disease rises with age، so that in Western countries، about 1 to 2% of adults suffer from this disease. Because of advances in surgical and medical therapy for patients who have survived a myocardial infarction، heart failure can develop subsequently. Therefore، finding new and effective laboratory tests for early detection and monitoring of the disease is important. In this review، heart failure، Galectin-3 and fibrosis keywords were searched in the PubMed، SID، Google Scholar، Science Direct، Springer and Iranmedex databases. Five and more than fifty articles were found in English and Persian language، respectively during 1992 to 2014. Finally two Persian and fifty English articles were selected. The results of these studies was suggested that Galectin-3 is involved in numerous physiological and pathological processes some of which، inflammation and fibrosis، are pivotal contributing pathophysiological mechanisms to the development and progression of HF. Because galectin-3 expression is maximal at peak cardiac fibrosis and virtually absent after recovery، routine measurement in patients with HF may prove valuable to identify those patients at highest risk for readmission or death. This review summarizes the most recent advances in galectin-3 research، with an emphasis on the role galectin-3 plays in the development and progression of HF.