ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Inflammation
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Experimental Models as a Tool for Studying Therapeutic Targets in COPD: Lessons LearnedView all 4 articles
Serum osteopontin as a prognostic biomarker in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Provisionally accepted
- 1Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China
- 2Funan County People's Hospital, Fuyang, China
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Osteopontin, as a phosphorylated glycoprotein, is highly expressed in lung tissues and increased in inflammatory diseases. However, its role in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) remains unclear. All 281 AECOPD patients, 89 stable COPD (SCOPD) cases, and 89 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this prospective cohort in accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Demographic information and clinical features were obtained from electronic medical records systems. Fasting venous blood was collected on the day of admission. Baseline serum osteopontin was determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. The primary endpoint consisted of death, the frequency of acute exacerbation, and hospital length were observed via follow-up study. Baseline serum osteopontin was increased in AECOPD patients compared to SCOPD patients and healthy volunteers. Linear regression analysis found the positive associations between serum osteopontin and severity scores in AECOPD patients, and inverse correlation of serum osteopontin with pulmonary function among SCOPD patients. In addition, baseline serum osteopontin was elevated in AECOPD patients with a worsened prognosis. Logistic regression analysis indicated that serum osteopontin was positively correlated with the risks of death and acute exacerbation in the first year. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve suggested that the predictive ability of serum osteopontin for a worsened prognosis was consistent with COPD Assessment Test (CAT) score, and higher than modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) score among AECOPD patients. Our data hinted that baseline serum osteopontin was positively associated with the severity scores and the worse clinical outcomes, highlighting the potential value of serum osteopontin as surrogate prognostic biomarker in AECOPD patients.
Keywords: COPD, Osteopontin, death, Acute exacerbation, cohort study
Received: 19 Sep 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fu, Ma, Li, Ma, Fan, Chen, Zhao and Qu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lin Fu, fulindev@126.com
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