Review Article Osteoprotegerin in Cardiometabolic Disorders

Copyright © 2015 C. Pérez de Ciriza et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Osteoprotegerin (OPG), a glycoprotein traditionally implicated in bone remodelling, has been recently related to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Human studies show a positive relationship between circulating OPG, vascular damage, and CVD, and as such OPG has emerged as a potential biomarker for CVD. This review focuses on the relationship between circulating OPG and different endocrine cardiometabolic alterations such as type 1 and 2 diabetes. The association of OPG with diabetic complications (neuropathy, nephropathy, or retinopathy) as well as with atherosclerosis, coronary artery calcification, morbidity, and mortality is pointed out. Moreover, OPG modulation by different treatments is also established. Besides, other associated diseases such as obesity, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome, which are known cardiovascular risk factors, are also considered. 1. Osteoprotegerin: Discovery and Structure Osteoprotegerin (OPG)was first identified in 1997 simultane-ously by two different research groups. Simonet et al. (1997) [1] were involved in a foetal rat intestine complementary deoxyribonucleic acid- (cDNA-) sequencing project whe