Osteoglycin (OGN)

Osteoglycin is a protein which induces ectopic bone formation in conjunction with transforming growth factor beta. This protein is a small proteoglycan which contains tandem leucine-rich repeats (LRR). The gene expresses three transcript variants.The level of expression of this gene has been correlated with enlarged hearts and more specifically left ventricular hypertrophy.The human gene encodes a predicted 298-amino acid precursor protein that is processed into a 103-amino acid mature protein with 96% identity to the bovine protein. Northern blot analysis detected 3 OGN mRNAs exclusively in 2 human osteosarcoma cell lines.