Osteopontin Facilitates Prostate Cancer Progression In Laboratory Study

Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology;  Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 22 Feb 2006 - 5:00 PDT

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Osteopontin is a phosphoprotein that comprises 2% of bone. It is involved in many cellular processes including migration, survival, and cell-mediated immunity.

Dr Khodavirdi and associates evaluated a role for osteopontin in the progression of prostate cancer (CaP). The findings appear in the January 15, 2006 issue of Cancer Research.

In the first experiments, pre-neoplastic and neoplastic mouse models of CaP were studied to determine when osteopontin begins to play a role. Tissue from these mouse models was stained for osteopontin expression. Osteopontin expression was increasingly present in models of low-grade PIN, high-grade PIN, adenocarcinoma and metastatic adenocarcinoma. Tumor bearing prostates contained 3.2 fold higher osteopontin levels.

Five human CaP cell lines had osteopontin levels measured, and LNCaP and PC3 cells were selected for further study, with PC3 cells demonstrated greater osteopontin expression. LNCaP and PC3 cells were infected with a viral vector containing the osteopontin cDNA. LNCaP cells infected with the osteopontin gene showed increased proliferation and in vitro invasion over controls. PC3 had a modest increase in proliferation and in vitro invasion.

The effect of osteopontin overexpression was more pronounced in the LNCaP cells, perhaps due to the fact that their basal expression of osteopontin was less. PC3 cells have a higher level of basal osteopontin expression and the additional amount might not have translated to as great a biologic effect as in the LNCaP cells.

By Christopher P. Evans, M.D.

Cancer Res 2006:66; 883-888
Link Here.
Khodavirdi AC, Song Z, Yang S, Zhong C, Wang S, Wu H, Pritchard C, Nelson PS, Roy-Burman P

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