{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,10]],"date-time":"2026-11-10T12:31:52Z","timestamp":1794313912967,"version":"4.9.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,21]],"date-time":"2021-04-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1618963200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Pharmaceuticals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a severe complication of connective tissue diseases (CTD). Its early diagnosis is essential to start effective treatment. In the present paper, we aimed to evaluate the role of plasma osteopontin (OPN) as a candidate biomarker of PAH in a cohort of CTD patients. OPN is a pleiotropic protein involved in inflammation and fibrogenesis and, therefore, potentially promising in this specific clinical context. We performed a cross-sectional observational study on a cohort of 113 CTD patients (females N = 101, 89.4%) affected by systemic sclerosis N = 88 (77.9%), mixed connective tissue disease N = 10 (8.8%), overlap syndrome N = 10 (8.8%) or undifferentiated connective tissue disease N = 5 (4.4%). CTD-PAH patients showed significantly higher OPN plasma values than patients with CTD alone (241.0 (188.8\u2013387.2) vs. 200.7 (133.5\u2013281.6) ng\/mL; p = 0.03). Although OPN levels were directly correlated with age and inversely with glomerular filtration rate, they remained associated with PAH at multivariate analysis. In conclusion, OPN was significantly associated with PAH among patients with CTD, suggesting it may have a role as a non-invasive disease biomarker of PAH.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ph14050394","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,21]],"date-time":"2021-04-21T21:25:10Z","timestamp":1619040310000},"page":"394","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Role of Osteopontin as a Potential Biomarker of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis and Other Connective Tissue Diseases (CTDs)"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1488-8736","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mattia","family":"Bellan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"},{"name":"Division of Cardoilogy, \u201cAOU Maggiore della Carit\u00e0\u201d Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"},{"name":"CAAD (Center for Translational Research on Autoimmune and Allergic Disease), Maggiore della Carit\u00e0 Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cristina","family":"Piccinino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Cardoilogy, \u201cAOU Maggiore della Carit\u00e0\u201d Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stelvio","family":"Tonello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Rosalba","family":"Minisini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ailia","family":"Giubertoni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniele","family":"Sola","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Cardoilogy, \u201cAOU Maggiore della Carit\u00e0\u201d Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roberta","family":"Pedrazzoli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Cardoilogy, \u201cAOU Maggiore della Carit\u00e0\u201d Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ileana","family":"Gagliardi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Erika","family":"Zecca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Elisa","family":"Calzaducca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Federica","family":"Mazzoleni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Roberto","family":"Piffero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Giuseppe","family":"Patti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"},{"name":"Division of Cardoilogy, \u201cAOU Maggiore della Carit\u00e0\u201d Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mario","family":"Pirisi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"},{"name":"Division of Cardoilogy, \u201cAOU Maggiore della Carit\u00e0\u201d Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"},{"name":"CAAD (Center for Translational Research on Autoimmune and Allergic Disease), Maggiore della Carit\u00e0 Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8322-9158","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pier Paolo","family":"Sainaghi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Medicine, Universit\u00e0 del Piemonte Orientale UPO, 28100 Novara, Italy"},{"name":"Division of Cardoilogy, \u201cAOU Maggiore della Carit\u00e0\u201d Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"},{"name":"CAAD (Center for Translational Research on Autoimmune and Allergic Disease), Maggiore della Carit\u00e0 Hospital, 28100 Novara, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"67","article-title":"ESC Scientific Document Group. 2015 ESC\/ERS Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension","volume":"37","author":"Humbert","year":"2016","journal-title":"Eur. 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