Osteopontin Is Associated with Tumor Malignancy Revealed by Multi-Parametric MRI Assays

Nai-Wei Yao¹, ², Chiao-Chi V. Chen¹, Yi-Hua Hsu¹, Hsiu-Ting Lin¹, Jeou-Yuan Chen¹, Chen Chang¹

Gliomas are aggressive brain tumors with a poor prognosis and remain refractory to treatment. Osteopontin (OPN) is strongly expressed in high-grade and metastatic brain tumors and plays a major role in cancer progression. It is hypothesized in this study that OPN is associated with tumor malignancy. OPN knockdown of rat C6 glioblastoma cells was used as a tactic to investigate the roles of OPN in tumor malignancy. The present study demonstrates that the tumor with OPN-knockdown exhibited lower malignancy than control tumors, including decreased T2 signal intensity of tumor, lower vascular permeability, and the changes of tumor-related metabolites.