Background: The association between psoriasis and cardiovascular diseases is well documented yet the underlying mechanisms remain elusive.
Objectives: We sought to study the role of circulating osteopontin (OPN) in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases in patients with psoriasis.
Methods: Plasma samples from 40 patients with psoriasis and 37 control subjects were collected for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The clinical significance of OPN levels in patients with psoriasis versus control subjects was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and logistic regression. DNA samples from 268 patients with psoriasis and 146 control subjects were collected for genotyping of the OPN gene.
Results: Higher body mass index values (P = .047) and hypertension (odds ratio [OR] 2.68, P = .05) were observed in patients with psoriasis. Increased plasma OPN levels (>or=62.95 ng/mL) were significantly associated with psoriasis (OR 6.24, P = .001), hypertension (OR 3.05, P = .03), and diabetes mellitus (OR 3.13, P = .05). Occurrence of psoriasis (OR 5.12, P = .003) appeared to be the single independent risk factor for high plasma OPN values after multivariate logistic regression. Among patients with psoriasis, increased plasma OPN values were associated with the presence of hypertension (OR 4.69, P = .05). However, no significantly different allelic distributions of single nucleotide polymorphisms of the OPN gene were found between psoriasis and control groups.
Limitations: The number of patients evaluated was relatively small.
Conclusions: High plasma OPN levels are an unfavorable factor for development of cardiovascular disease in patients with psoriasis.