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Scientific letters
Clinical and echocardiographic correlates of plasma osteopontin in the community: the Framingham Heart Study
  1. J Ärnlöv1,
  2. J C Evans1,
  3. E J Benjamin1,
  4. M G Larson1,
  5. D Levy1,
  6. P Sutherland1,
  7. D A Siwik2,
  8. T J Wang8,
  9. W S Colucci2,
  10. R S Vasan1
  1. 1National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts, USA
  2. 2Myocardial Biology Unit, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  1. Correspondence to:
    Dr Ramachandran S Vasan
    Framingham Heart Study, 73 Mt Wayte Avenue, Framingham, MA 01702-5827, USA; vasan{at}bu.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/hrt.2005.081406

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    Recent investigations have highlighted the importance of the matricellular protein osteopontin as a key mediator in the cardiovascular system, specifically in the processes of vascular remodelling, vascular and valvular calcification and left ventricular (LV) remodelling.1 To our knowledge, no prior study has investigated whether plasma osteopontin concentrations are related to cardiovascular disease risk factors, valve calcification, and LV dilatation and hypertrophy in a community-based sample. Accordingly, we investigated the clinical and echocardiographic correlates of plasma osteopontin in a community-based sample.

    METHODS

    The design and selection criteria of the Framingham Offspring study have been described previously.2 On the basis of the sex-specific distributions of echocardiographic LV measurements, we sampled participants from the sixth examination cycle (1995–8) with both LV end diastolic dimension (LVEDD) and wall thickness (LVWT) below the sex-specific median (referent, n  =  129), with increased LVEDD (⩾ 90th sex-specific centile, n  =  134) and increased LVWT (⩾ 90th sex-specific centile, n  =  128) in a 1:1:1 ratio. Eighteen participants were included in both LV dilatation and increased LVWT groups, so the study sample consisted of 373 participants. Participants underwent a standardised medical history and physical examination. Fasting blood samples were drawn and frozen at −70°C without any freeze–thaw cycles until assay. Plasma osteopontin was measured in duplicate by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Calbiochem, Inc) with an intra-assay coefficient of variation of 4.6%. …

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    Footnotes

    • Sources of support: Bergmarks travel grant, Viking Björks Hedersledamotstipendium, Capio travel grant (JÄ) and through research grants (NHLBI/NIH Contract N01-HC-25195, 1R01HL67288, 1K23 HL074077-01 (TJW) and 2K24HL04334 (RSV)) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

    • Conflict of interest: None of the authors have a conflict of interest to report as related to this manuscript.

    • Ethics approval: the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Boston Medical Center and all subjects gave written informed consent.