Increased levels of osteopontin in sputum supernatant in severe refractory asthma

Delimpoura, Vasiliki, Bakakos, Petros, Tseliou, Eleni, Bessa, Vasiliki, Hillas, Georgios, Camargo Madeira Simoes, Davina, Papiris, Spyros and Loukides, Stelios (2010) Increased levels of osteopontin in sputum supernatant in severe refractory asthma. Thorax, 65 (9). pp. 782-786. ISSN 0040-6376

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Abstract

Background Osteopontin (OPN) is a glycoprotein that has been associated with inflammation and fibrosis. Severe refractory asthma (SRA) is characterised by an intense inflammatory and remodelling process. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of OPN in sputum supernatants of patients with SRA, to compare them with milder forms of the disease and to investigate their possible association with mediators and cells involved in the inflammatory and remodelling process.

Methods 33 patients with SRA, 29 with moderate asthma, 21 with steroid-naïve asthma and 20 healthy subjects were studied. All subjects underwent lung function tests, bronchial hyper-responsiveness assessment and sputum induction for cell count identification and measurement of OPN, vascular endothelial growth factor, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), cysteinyl leukotrienes, interleukin 13 (IL-13), eosinophilic cationic protein (ECP) and IL-8 in sputum supernatants.

Results Median (IQR) OPN levels (pg/ml) were significantly higher in patients with SRA than in those with moderate asthma, steroid-naive asthma and healthy control subjects (1840 (1125–11000) vs 130 (100–210) vs 100 (67–130) vs 50 (42–70), respectively, p<0.001). Regression analysis showed a significant association between log OPN and sputum eosinophils, cysteinyl leukotrienes, IL-13, TGF-β1 and ECP. TGF-β1 represented the strongest association with OPN. The above associations were not observed in milder forms of the disease or in healthy subjects.

Conclusions The results indicate that OPN levels are higher in SRA than in less severe forms of the disease. Moreover, OPN is associated with mediators involved in both the inflammatory and remodelling process such as TGF-β1, IL-13 and cysteinyl leukotrienes only in SRA.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	B100 Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology C700 Molecular Biology, Biophysics and Biochemistry
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Depositing User:	Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited:	19 Dec 2017 10:07
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 23:01
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/32899

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