Osteopontin (Opn) contributes to diverse biological processes that include immune responses, vascularization, and bone formation. Until recently, studies describing the activities of Opn have focused on the cytokine-like properties of the secreted protein. Here, we show that alternative translation of a single Opn mRNA species generates a secreted and intracellular isoform. Utilization of a 5' ...

During wound healing, cell migration, proliferation, differentiation, and enhanced biosynthetic activities are observed at the sites of injury. Interactions between extracellular matrix (ECM) components and specific cell surface receptors, such as integrins, initiate cascades of signal transduction leading to various cellular responses. This review will focus on the biological functions of seve...

UNLABELLED Osteopontin (OPN) is an important component of the extracellular matrix (ECM), which promotes liver fibrosis and has been described as a biomarker for its severity. Previously, we have demonstrated that Sex-determining region Y-box 9 (SOX9) is ectopically expressed during activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSC) when it is responsible for the production of type 1 collagen, which ca...

Osteopontin (OPN), a secreted acid glycoprotein with a variety of functions, promotes tumor proliferation, differentiation, invasion and metastasis. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether OPN may serve as a potential therapeutic target for human bladder cancer. RNA interference (RNAi) was performed to downregulate the expression of the OPN gene in T24 human bladder cancer cells...

Pemetrexed (PEM) is currently recommended as one of the standard anticancer drugs for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). However, the mechanism of the sensitivity of MPM to PEM remains unclear. We analyzed the antitumor effects of PEM in six MPM cell lines by MTS assay. To identify genes associated with drug sensitivity, we conducted gene expression profiling on the same set of cell lines us...

BACKGROUND Osteopontin (OPN) C-443T promoter polymorphism has been shown as a genetic risk factor for diabetic nephropathy (DN) in type 2 diabetic patients (T2D). METHODS In the present study we investigated the association of three functional promoter gene polymorphisms C-443T, delG-156G, and G-66T and their haplotypes with the risk of DN and estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) in As...

BACKGROUND Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an immunophenotypically heterogeneous malignant disease, in which CD34 positivity is associated with poor prognosis. Osteopontin (OPN) plays different roles in physiologic and pathologic conditions like: survival, metastasis and cell protection from cytotoxic and apoptotic stimuli. Due to anti-apoptotic effect of OPN in normal and malignant cells, sile...

We have demonstrated up-regulation of the immunomodulatory genes decay accelerating factor (DAF), interleukin 15 (IL-15) and osteopontin (OPN) during the window of implantation (WOI). Here, we characterized gene expression and determined the localization of their protein products and respective ligands at the opening and closure of the WOI. In addition, we used laser capture microdissection (LC...

Osteopontin (OPN), also called early T cell activation gene-1 (Eta-1) or secreted phosphoprotein 1 (Spp1), has important functions in bone metabolism (1, 2) and in inflammation and immunity to infectious diseases (3, 4). Recently, several studies (5–9) have suggested that OPN also plays a crucial role in inflammatory disease models of multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Chaba...

The current lack of cancer stem cell (CSC) markers that are easily evaluated by blood samples prevents the establishment of new therapeutic strategies in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Herein, we examined whether sex determining region Y-box 9 (SOX9) represents a new CSC marker, and whether osteopontin (OPN) can be used as a surrogate marker of SOX9 in HCC. In HCC cell lines transfected with a...