RESUMO
BACKGROUND:Osteopontin mRNA and protein expressions are highly correlated with the severity of osteoarthritis. OBJECTIVE:To investigate the effect of osteopontin on the gene expression of aggrecan and type II colagen in the human knee osteoarthritic chondrocytes in vitro. METHODS: Chondrocytes were harvested from human osteoarthritic knees and culturedin vitro. The chondrocytes were cultured with 0 (blank control group), 0.1, 1 mg/L osteopontin, respectively, for 48 hours. Real-time PCR was employed to detect the mRNA expression of aggrecan and type II colagen. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:After 0.1 and 1 mg/L osteopontin intervention, the mRNA expression of aggrecan and type II colagen in osteoarthritic chondrocytes was increased significantly (P< 0.05), and the mRNA expression of aggrecan and type II colagen was higher in the 1 mg/L osteopontin group than the 0.1 mg/L osteopontin group (P< 0.05). In addition, the mRNA expression of aggrecan and type II colagen was positively correlated with the concentration of osteopontin (r=0.751,P < 0.01;r=0.676,P < 0.01). These findings indicate that osteopontin up-regulates the mRNA expression of aggrecan and type II colagen in osteoarthritic chondrocytes of human kneein vitro in a dose-dependent manner.