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Background and aim Galectins have been recently tackled by many researchers in the field of cancer due to their role in tumorigenesis, disease progression, and metastasis. Thus, they are currently involved in biomarkers research on several types of cancer. In ovarian cancers, few studies were carried out to evaluate galectins expression profiling. Hence, our present study was executed to evaluate the mRNA expression of galectins -1, -3, -4, -8, and -9 in epithelial ovarian cancers. Methods Fifty-six tumor samples of ovarian carcinomas were analyzed for mRNA expression using qRT-PCR, and fold-changes were calculated in comparison to tissue samples of 26 women with normal ovaries. Results The results of the present paper emphasize the importance of galectins as predictors for targeted therapy. LGALS1, LGALS3, LGALS4, LGALS8, and LGALS9 were found to be mostly overexpressed in ovarian carcinoma patients with the following percentage: 78.6%, 92.9%, 66.1%, 87.5%, and 85.7% respectively. Moreover, galectins -3 and -9 were found to be significantly elevated with lymph node metastasis (p = 0.044 and p = 0.011). Also, upregulation of galectin-1 and -9 were statistically significant in stages IIB, IIC, and IIIB (p = 0.002) in FIGO staging. CA19.9 is positively correlated to galectin-4 expression (p = 0.039). Conclusion Our findings strengthen the role of galectins in carcinogenesis, disease progression, and lymphnode metastasis in ovarian carcinomas. And since these galectins are mostly overexpressed, they could be promising markers for targeted therapy to reduce disease progression and metastasis process.

Additional file 2: Supplementary Table 1. Clinical parameters of control individuals (N=26).

Background: fetal growth restriction is an important cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality. The accurate assessment of fetal growth during pregnancy is difficult, but recent advances have improved this important aspect of obstetric care with positive implications for antenatal patients and their babies. Aim of the Work: to assess the effect of sildenafil citrate on color Doppler flow parameters in umbilical artery, Middle cerebral artery and Biophysical Profile in case of fetal growth restriction. Patients and Methods: this is a prospective cohort study of 100 pregnant females presenting for routine antenatal care at 28 + 0 weeks till delivery. A cohort of 100 pregnant females attending the antenatal care clinics at Al-Hussein university hospital and Bab El-Sharia university hospital during a period of 2 years from May 2016 to May 2018. Results: this study excluded the patients with undetermined gestational age, intrauterine infection, high risk for aneuploidy (e.g. maternal age >40 years, detected congenital fetal anomalies in the current or previous pregnancies). All cases were followed regularly twice monthly during the seventh and eighth month and then once weekly till delivery, after the administration of 20mg of sildenafil citrate every 12 hourly starting from the 28 weeks of gestation until delivery. Conclusion: the current study conclude that, administration of Sildenafil 20 mg every 12 hourly in pregnant females with fetal growth restriction (FGR) improved the feto-placental Doppler indices (pulsatility index and resistance index) of umbilical artery, middle cerebral artery.