The role of osteopontin in inflammatory processes Therefore, during inflammation, it is likely that the secreted, less potent, full-length OPN is rapidly cleaved and thus activated. Understanding differences in the mechanisms and structure/function relationships governing the proinflammatory properties of OPN could help create specific therapeutics aimed at targeting chronic inflamma- tory diseases selectively. Acknowledgements Dr. Giachelli’s laboratory is funded by NIH grants HL62329, HL081785, and HL18645, and grant #2361524 from the Washington State Life Science Discovery Fund. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which per- mits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. 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