The long pentraxin PTX3: a novel serum marker to improve the prediction of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis bone-related phenotypes

Virginia Veronica Visconti,Umberto Tarantino,Annalisa Botta,Simona Fittipaldi,Francesco Romano,Chiara Greggi,Donato Casamassima,Mariagrazia Tallarico

doi:10.1186/s13018-021-02440-3

Virginia Veronica Visconti, Umberto Tarantino + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-021-02440-3

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Abstract

BackgroundThe long pentraxin PTX3 is generating great interest given the recent discovery of its involvement in bone metabolism. This study investigates the role of circulating PTX3 as a marker of bone-related phenotypes in patients with osteoporosis (OP) and osteoarthritis (OA).MethodsSerum PTX3 levels were determined using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in a total of OP (n=32), OA (n=19) patients and healthy controls (CTR; n=25). ROC curve analysis was carried out to evaluate the potential of PTX3 for the diagnosis of bone-related phenotypes. In addition, the association between PTX3 serum levels and biochemical markers was estimated by Spearman correlation analysis.ResultsSerum analysis reveals a statistically significant increase of PTX3 levels in OP and OA patients, compared to CTR subjects (**** p < 0.0001, **** p < 0.0001). ROC curve of PTX3 levels exhibits an excellent sensitivity and specificity for OP and OA diseases (**** p < 0.0001 and **** p < 0.0001, respectively). Moreover, serum PTX3 levels are positively associated with ALP (r = − 0.5257, p = 0.0083) and PTH levels (r = 0.4704, p = 0.0203) in OP patients.ConclusionsThese results confirm the pivotal role of PTX3 in bone metabolism and suggest its potential use as a predictor of OP and OA bone-related phenotypes.

Highlights

The long pentraxin PTX3 is a member of pentraxins superfamily, a class of humoral pattern recognition molecules, which play a fundamental role in innate and adaptive immune response [1, 2]
In OA patients, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis for PTX3 serum levels showed that the area under the ROC curve was AUC=0.9211, p < 0.0001, 95% CI=0.843–0.9991
Correlation analysis of PTX3 serum levels with clinical/ biochemical markers The present study investigates the correlation between circulating PTX3 levels and clinical/biochemical parameters, including body mass index (BMI), bone mineral density (BMD) L1-L4, t-score L1-L4, BMD FN, t-score FN, calcium, phosphorous, parathyroid hormone (PTH), 25(OH)-Vit D and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in our study cohort

Summary

Introduction

The long pentraxin PTX3 is a member of pentraxins superfamily, a class of humoral pattern recognition molecules, which play a fundamental role in innate and adaptive immune response [1, 2]. The inflammaging is a pathological state characterized by chronic, asymptomatic and systemic low-grade inflammation, involved in different bone-related pathologies, such as osteoporosis (OP) and osteoarthritis (OA) [13,14,15] In this context, inflammation is characterized by the excessive secretion of cytokines with a pro-inflammatory role and the ageing process presents an imbalance of the immune system, which leads to an upregulation of immune responses [16, 17]. In order to gain further insights into the function of PTX3 in bone pathophysiology, we analyse the level of circulating PTX3 in two groups of patients with ageing-related bone metabolism disorders. This study investigates the role of circulating PTX3 as a marker of bone-related phenotypes in patients with osteoporosis (OP) and osteoarthritis (OA)

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