ABSTRACT
Objective To study regulatory mechanism of osteopontin (OPN) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods The expression of OPN in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), synovial fluid cells (SFMC) and synovium tissue (ST) and T cell subsets from RA patients were detected by real time PCR. The concentration and relative rate of inflammatory factors in the synovial fluid from RA patients were analyzed by ELISA. Results The mRNA expression of OPN in synovial fluid and tissue was higher than that of PBMC in the same RA patient. The OPN expression was found mainly on CD4+T. The OPN concentration was higher in the synovial fluid than that of in the same patient′s serum. Meanwhile, the concentration of IL-10, IFN-? and TNF-? was higher than that of in the serum from same patient. Also, the concentration of IL-18 and IL-12 were higher than that of normal individual serum. Conclusion OPN may control secretion of inflammatory factors of synovium tissue and synovial fluid and induce the inflammatory response.