Serum osteopontin, an enhancer of tumor metastasis to bone, promotes B16 melanoma cell migration.

Tumor malignancy is associated with several features such as proliferation ability and frequency of metastasis. Since tumor metastasis shortens patients' lifetime, establishment of therapy for anti-metastasis is very important. Osteopontin (OPN), which abundantly expressed in bone matrix, is involved in cell adhesion, migration, extracellular matrix (ECM) invasion and cell proliferation via interaction with its receptor, that is, alphavbeta3 integrin. OPN is believed to be a positive regulator of tumor metastasis in vivo. However, how OPN regulates metastasis is largely unknown. Here, we explore the role of OPN in cell migration. Serum from wild-type mice induced cell migration of B16 melanoma cells, while serum from OPN-deficient mouse suppressed this event. The presence of recombinant OPN significantly enhanced cell migration compared to albumin containing medium. OPN-induced cell migration was suppressed by inhibiting the ERK/MAPK pathway indicating that OPN-induced cell migration depends on this pathway. Overexpression of OPN in these cancer cells per se promoted cell proliferation and tended to increase B16 cell migration suggesting that OPN promotes bone metastasis by playing dual roles both in host microenvironment and in tumor cell itself. In conclusion, the elevated OPN expression in host tissue and tumor cell itself promotes tumor cell migration reading to tumor metastasis, suggesting that neutralization of OPN-induced signal might be effective in suppression of tumor metastasis.