Monday, 19 June 2017

Osteopontin in Vascular Calcification: A Central Player or Accidental Witness?

Recent preclinical and clinical studies have shown that vascular calcification is inexorable pathological process leading to mechanical rigidity and stiffness of vascular wall, endothelial dysfunction, development and accelerating atherosclerosis even in the absence of established cardiovascular (CV) disease. 


Ectopic calcification is represented by several mutually counteracting molecular mechanisms, i.e., oxidative stress, microvascular inflammation, immune cell-to-cell cooperation, accumulation of lipids and extracellular proteins, vascular reparative systems, and metabolic disorders. All these processes are under tight regulation of vitamin D, parathyroid hormone-related peptides (fibroblast growth factor, transcription factor Sox2, betacatenin, etc.) and matricellular proteins such as osteopontin (OPN) and phosphate.(Read more)

No comments:

Post a Comment