Increased Levels of Osteopontin in Sputum Supernatant in Patients With COPD

Abstract

OPN levels are higher in patients with COPD compared with healthy subjects. OPN may play a role in the neutrophilic inflammation and in the pathogenesis of emphysema.

Osteopontin is increased in cystic fibrosis and can skew the functional balance between ELR-positive and ELR-negative CXC-chemokines

“…In recent years, evidence for important roles during chronic airway inflammation has accumulated. Similar to the findings in the present study, both polymerized and degraded OPN has been described in asthma and COPD, where the levels increase with disease severity [24,25]. This suggests that OPN is linked to key pathophysiologic events in the regulation of airway inflammation.…”

Ovary-dependent emphysema augmentation and osteopontin induction in adult female mice

“…3A), revealing an ovary-dependent transcriptional control of OPN in the early pathogenesis of emphysema of adult females. Our finding gives rise to an apparent inconsistency with human emphysema in which OPN accumulation is observed in the lungs of both male and female patients with COPD [9,10,18]. We cannot exclude the possibility that a slight but continuous tissue damage by chronic CS exposure activates gene expression of OPN independent of ovaries; however, considering that the prevalence rate of COPD increases with age [26], biological aging may also exert a non-negligible impact on OPN expression.…”

“…A strong correlation between OPN accumulation in plasma, sputum, and lung biopsies of patients with COPD and their disease severity has been reported [9,10,18]. Given such clinical observations, and the crucial roles of OPN in the pathogenesis of human and experimental emphysema [17,18], we predicted that Opn would be implicated in the enhanced severity of emphysema pathogenesis in adult female mice.…”

Simvastatin up-regulates adenosine deaminase and suppresses osteopontin expression in COPD patients through an IL-13-dependent mechanism

“…OPN induces airway neutrophilic inflammation and airway remodeling [22] and its expression is increased in patients with COPD [3, 21]. Simvastatin may suppress pro-inflammatory and induce anti-inflammatory cytokines in COPD [29].…”

“…OPN accumulation in smokers correlates with the degree of airflow limitation [20]. Sputum OPN is significantly higher in COPD patients than in healthy smokers in agreement with the extent of emphysema [21]. In COPD lungs, OPN is primarily localized in alveolar macrophages and to a lesser extent in epithelial cells, T cells and fibroblasts [22].…”