Study of prostatic osteopontin expression in symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia in relation to the severity of the disease

Osteopontin (OPN) is secreted non-collagenous, sialic acid rich, chemokine like, matricellular phosphoglycoprotein that facilitates cell matrix interactions and promotes tumour progression. OPN is expressed by most of the immune cells. It is a cytokine & chemoattractant, and activates T-cells as well as macrophages. Osteopontin has been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple fibrotic diseases. OPN, being a secreted protein, thus has also been explored for its function and diagnostic or prognostic potential in several cancers. Recently, it has been recognised that prostatic collagen accumulation is associated with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) severity and treatment resistance. Also, Osteopontin has been found to increasingly expressed in the prostatic stroma of these patients. OPN is expressed across diverse prostate cell types including immune, epithelial, stromal and endothelial cells. Primarily, epithelial cells secrete OPN and stromal cells respond by up-regulating pro-inflammatory cytokines, in turn inducing more OPN secretion by epithelial cells. Abundance of inflammatory infiltrates in the prostate also correlates with symptom score and prostate volume. In the present study we have evaluated the expression of Osteopontin in relation to symptomatic benign adenoleiomyomatous hyperplasia.