Expression of FGF-2 and osteopontin in non-small cell lung cancer

Objective To investigate the expression of fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) and osteopontin (OPN) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tissues and analyze the correlation between FGF-2 and OPN. Methods Immunohistochemical SP method was used to detect the expression of FGF-2 and OPN in 76 patients with NSCLC and 15 normal lung tissues. The effect of FGF-2 on OPN expression at mRNA and protein level in A549 cell was examined by RT-PCR and Western blot. Results The positive expression of FGF-2 (65.8%) and OPN (60.5%) in the NSCLC tissues was significantly higher than that in the normal lung tissues (13.3% and 0, respectively) (P < 0.01). The expression of FGF-2 and OPN was closely related to TNM stages and the lymph node metastasis (all Ps < 0.01), but not to histological types, sex, and age of NSCLC patients (all Ps > 0.05). A positive correlation was found between the expression of FGF-2 and OPN in NSCLC (r = 0.552, P < 0.01). The expression of OPN protein and mRNA was up-regulated by FGF-2 in A549 cells. Conclusion The overexpression of FGF-2 and OPN is related to the metas-tasis and invasion of NSCLC. FGF-2 may promote the metastasis and invasion of NSCLC depending on the upregulation of OPN expression.