Local concentrations of macrophage colony stimulating factor mediate osteoclastic differentiation. Perkins, Sherrie L., and Stephen J. Kling. Department of Pathology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84132
APStracts 2:0140E, 1995.
Macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) is essential for differentiation of osteoclasts and macrophages from a common bone marrow precursor. Using ST-2 stromal cell/murine bone marrow co -culture, we studied the effects of increasing amounts of M-CSF on differentiation of macrophages and osteoclasts . Addition of exogenous M-CSF caused a dose-dependent 98% decrease in TRAP-positive multinucleated cells, accompanied by a 2.5 fold increase in nonspecific esterase staining macrophages. Similar decreases in osteoclastic functional activity, including 125I-calcitonin binding and calcitonin-stimulated cAMP production were observed. Addition of exogenous M-CSF beyond 6 days in co-culture had a decreasing ability to inhibit osteoclast formation, suggesting that M-CSF exerts its effects early in osteoclast differentiation, during the proposed proliferative phase of osteoclast formation. Similarly, early addition of neutralizing anti-M-CSF inhibited osteoclast formation, with diminishing effects beyond day 9. These results suggest that local high concentrations of M-CSF may influence the early determination of terminal differentiation into either macrophages or osteoclasts.

Received 27 March 1995; accepted in final form 23 June 1995.
APS Manuscript Number E141-5.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Endocrinol. Metab.).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 11 July 1995.