BACKGROUND Patients treated with hemodialysis (HD) have an increased mortality, mainly caused by cardiovascular disease (CVD). Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a glycoprotein involved in the regulation of the vascular calcification process. Previous studies have demonstrated that OPG is a prognostic marker of mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate if OPG was a prognostic marker of all-caus...

Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a cytokine that regulates bone resorption by inhibiting osteoclastogenesis, and OPG has been implicated in the process that causes vascular stiffness. An increase in serum OPG level has been associated with the development of arterial stiffness. Kidney transplant (KT) patients are susceptible to aortic stiffness, which is considered to be a predictor of cardiovascular e...

Heparin modulates function of vascular endothelium. We studied the effects of unfractionated heparin (UFH) vs. enoxaparin vs. sulodexide on the levels and gene expression of osteoprotegerin (OPG), Receptor Activator of Nuclear Factor kB Ligand (RANKL) and von Willebrand factor (vWF) in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) culture. HUVEC were isolated from human umbilical vein by a sta...

OBJECTIVES Enhanced osteoclastogenesis, increased bone resorption, and osteoporosis have been reported in osteoprotegerin-deficient (OPG (-/-)) mice. OPG (-/-) mice available in Japan usually do not show vascular calcification. We have found that arterial calcification can be quickly induced by a simple procedure in OPG (-/-) mice. METHODS AND RESULTS Male OPG (-/-), OPG (+/-), and OPG (+/+) ...

Osteolytic bone damage is amajor cause ofmorbidity in several metastatic pathologies. Current therapies using bisphosphonates providemodest improvement, but cytotoxic side effects still occur prompting the need to develop more effective therapies to target aggressive osteoclastogenesis. Increased levels of receptor activator ofNF–kB ligand (TNFSF11/RANKL), leading to RANKL-RANK signaling, remai...

Background & Aims: Epidural fibrosis (EF) is part of natural physiological tissue response to laminctomy and it may be an important cause of failed back surgery syndrome (FBSS). There is still no effective medical or surgical therapy for EF. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a soluble member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family that might play a role in postoperative EF. The objective of this st...

calcification and inflammation are among the important cases of exudative age-related macular degeneration (e-armd). the aim of the present study was to elucidate if there is any relationship between serum osteoprotegerin (opg), soluble receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa b ligand (rank-ligand) and e-armd. in a cross-sectional study, we compared 45 e-armd patients with 45 matched control...

We studied the effects of PTH on the expression of tumor necrosis factor-related activation-induced cytokine (TRANCE), osteoprotegerin (OPG), and receptor activator of NF kappaB (RANK) messenger RNA (mRNA) in cultured murine bone marrow, calvaria, and osteoblasts. TRANCE, OPG, and RANK are recently identified regulators of osteoclast formation. Bone marrow cells were cultured with or without PT...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer patients treated with aromatase inhibitors (AIs) may experience musculoskeletal adverse events (MS-AEs). Several studies have confirmed that the RANKL/RANK/OPG signaling pathway plays a dominant role in bone health. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the relationship between the serum levels of RANKL, OPG and their SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) with AI-rela...

OBJECTIVE Plasma osteoprotegerin (OPG) is an emerging strong and independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in high-risk populations. OPG is a bone-related glycopeptide produced by vascular smooth muscle cells, and increased plasma OPG levels may reflect arterial vascular damage. We aimed to investigate the prognostic value of OPG in relation to all-cause and cardiovascular mortality...