The Osteopontin Antibody and Hepatic Research

Antibody suppliers, such as us at Novus Biologicals, supply a wide range of cell marker products, among them the Osteopontin antibody. Recently, the osteopontin antibody has proven useful in hepatic cancer research.

Osteopontin (OPN) is mainly expressed by the osteoblasts; its primary function is in the mineralization of bone. However, OPN is expressed to a lower degree in other areas of the body, being involved in cell adhesion, cell migration and the inflammatory response.

Osteopontin has been implicated in a number of inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis and hepatitis. It is also upregulated in a number of cancers. Osteopontin antibody studies have shown OPN is modified in a number of tissue-specific ways, including phosphorylation, glycosylation, sulphation and transglutamination.

OPN is known to have two central domains with multiple integrin binding sites, which are activated following thrombin-induced cleavage. Cleavage can also be initiated by MMP proteins at central and C-terminal sites, although C-terminal binding seems to have no integrin effect. Importantly, OPN can undergo complete digestion by MMP-9, resulting in the release of a 5 kDa fragment. In 2007, Takafuji, et al. published a study showing this fragment plays a role in the development of hepatocellular carcinomas, promoting CD44-mediated metastasis.

Administration of neutralizing murine osteopontin antibody has proven successful in treating RA and fulminant hepatitis in mice, but is of little clinical use in humans. Recently, B. Zhang, et al. succeeded in 'humanizing' a murine osteopontin antibody, while retaining full binding affinity. The study strongly suggested humanized anti-osteopontin antibody may have a therapeutic use in humans, though it must be stressed the products sold by antibody suppliers are for research use only.

Novus Biologicals offers many Osteopontin reagents for your research needs including:

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CD44