Objective:To study the clinical significance of osteopontin(OPN) expressions in hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods:Western Blotting was used to detect the expression of OPN in cancerous tissues and paraneoplastic liver tissues from 21 HCC patients. OPN expression was evaluated as well in 12 normal liver tissues. Using immunohistochemistry techniques, the expression of OPN,VEGF and CD34 were measured in 85 surgically removed primary HCCs,10 liver cirrhosis tissues and 10 normal liver tissues. Microvessel density(MVD) was also counted by Weidner method. Furthermore,the correlation between OPN expression and clinicopathologic features was analyzed. Results:The data of Western blotting reveals that OPN was significantly overexpression in HCC and associated closely with early recurrence and metastasis(P = 0.003)-The results from immunohistochemistry demonstrated that OPN in HCC was significantly higher than that in liver cirrhosis and normal tissues(P < 0.05). The OPN was significantly overexpressed in HCC with capsular infiltration(P = 0.03),HBV(P = 0.03) and associated with early recurrence and metastasis(P = 0.0018). A positive correlation between OPN and VEGF expressions was found in HCC(r = 0.71,P < 0.01). And there was also a positive correlation between OPN and MVD expressions in hepatocellular carcinioma(r = 0.44,P < 0.01). Conclusion:Overexpression of osteopontin was common in HCC and was significantly correlated with capsular infiltration,HBV and early recurrence and metastasis. The OPN exoression was closely related to VEGF exoression and MVD in HCC,and it indicated that OPN might participate in carcinioma angiogenesis.