Osteoblasts from the toothless (osteopetrotic) mutation in the rat are unable to direct bone resorption by normal osteoclasts in response to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D

The osteopetrotic mutation toothless (tl) is a loss-of-function frameshift mutation in the rat Csf1 gene: Evidence of a crucial role for CSF-1 in osteoclastogenesis and endochondral ossification

The toothless (tl) mutation in the rat is a naturally occurring, autosomal recessive mutation resulting in a profound deficiency of bone-resorbing osteoclasts and peritoneal macrophages. The failure to resorb bone produces severe, unrelenting osteopetrosis, with a highly sclerotic skeleton, lack of marrow spaces, failure of tooth eruption, and other pathologies. Injections of CSF-1 improve some, but not all, of these. In this report we have used polymorphism mapping, sequencing, and expression studies to identify the genetic lesion in the tl rat. We found a 10-base insertion near the beginning of the open reading of the Csf1 gene that yields a truncated, nonfunctional protein and an early stop codon, thus rendering the tl rat CSF-1(null). All mutants were homozygous for the mutation and all carriers were heterozygous. No CSF-1 transcripts were identified in rat mRNA that would avoid the mutation via alternative splicing. The biology and actions of CSF-1 have been elucidated by many studies that use another naturally occurring mutation, the op mouse, in which a single base insertion also disrupts the reading frame. The op mouse has milder osteoclastopenia and osteopetrosis than the tl rat and recovers spontaneously over the first few months of life. Thus, the tl rat provides a second model in which the functions of CSF-1 can be studied. Understanding the similarities and differences in the phenotypes of these two models will be important to advancing our knowledge of the many actions of CSF-1.

Reduced bone resorption in toothless (osteopetrotic) rats--an abnormality of osteoblasts related to their inability to activate osteoclast activity in vitro

Osteopetrosis is a heterogeneous group of metabolic bone disorders characterized by reduced bone resorption. In the toothless (tl) osteopetrotic rat mutation there are few osteoclasts and mutants are not cured by bone marrow transplants. This suggests that the defect(s) in tl rats is within the skeletal microenvironment and not one of stem cell incompetence. Osteoblasts are known to play a role in bone resorption and abnormalities in these cells have been reported in tl rats. We explored the ability of osteoblasts from tl rats to activate resorption by normal osteoclasts when co-cultured in the presence of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D). Stimulation with 1,25(OH)2D produced a highly significant response in normal osteoblast co-cultures, but no response was observed in mutant cultures over a wide dose range. Ligand-binding studies demonstrated no abnormalities in vitamin D receptor (VDR) affinity, but mutant osteoblasts had reduced VDR numbers. Taken together with the demonstrated resistance of these mutants to the hypercalcemic effects of 1,25(OH)2D and parathyroid hormone in vivo, these data implicate osteoblasts in the pathogenesis of this mutation.

The toothless osteopetrotic rat has a normal vitamin D-binding protein-macrophage activating factor (DBP-MAF) cascade and chondrodysplasia resistant to treatments with colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) and/or DBP-MAF

The osteopetrotic rat mutation toothless (tl) is characterized by little or no bone resorption, few osteoclasts and macrophages, and chondrodysplasia at the growth plates. Short-term treatment of tl rats with colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) has been shown to increase the number of osteoclasts and macrophages, producing dramatic resolution of skeletal sclerosis at some, but not all, sites. Defects in production of vitamin D-binding protein-macrophage activating factor (DBP-MAF) have been identified in two other independent osteopetrotic mutations of the rat (op and ia), and two in the mouse (op and mi), in which macrophages and osteoclasts can be activated by the administration of exogenous DBP-MAF. The present studies were undertaken to examine the histology and residual growth defects in tl rats following longer CSF-1 treatments, to investigate the possibility that exogenous DBP-MAF might act synergistically with CSF-1 to improve the tl phenotype, and to assess the integrity of the endogenous DBP-MAF pathway in this mutation. CSF-1 treatment-with or without DBP-MAF-induced resorption of metaphyseal bone to the growth plate on the marrow side, improved slightly but did not normalize long bone growth, and caused no improvement in the abnormal histology of the growth plate. Injections of lysophosphatidylcholine (lyso-Pc) to prime macrophage activation via the DBP-MAF pathway raised superoxide production to similar levels in peritoneal macrophages from both normal and mutant animals, indicating no defect in the DBP-MAF pathway in tl rats. Interestingly, pretreatments with CSF-1 alone also increased superoxide production, although the mechanism for this remains unknown. In summary, we find that, unlike other osteopetrotic mutations investigated to date, the DBP-MAF pathway does not appear to be defective in the tl rat; that additional DBP-MAF does not augment the beneficial skeletal effects seen with CSF-1 alone; and that the growth plate chondrodystrophy seen in this mutation is unaffected by either molecule. Thus, the tl mutation intercepts the function of a gene required for both normal endochondral ossification and bone resorption, thereby uncoupling the coordination of skeletal metabolism required for normal long bone growth.

Actin mRNA isoforms are differentially sorted in normal osteoblasts and sorting is altered in osteoblasts from a skeletal mutation in the rat

Actin isoform sorting has been shown to occur in a variety of cell types in culture. To this list we add osteoblasts, in which we show by in situ hybridization that beta-actin is distributed primarily in cell processes and on one side of the nucleus and gamma-actin has a perinuclear distribution. Osteoblasts from the skeletal mutation toothless (tl), evaluated under identical conditions, fail to sort these actin isoforms differentially and exhibit diffuse labeling as their major manifestation. Northern analyses of actin mRNAs showed no differences between normal and mutant cultures. Shortened osteoblast life span and an inability to direct osteoclast-mediated bone resorption have recently been demonstrated in tl mutants. The present results suggest that a failure of osteoblasts to sort actin mRNAs may be related to one or both of these pathological manifestations in this mutation and represent, to our knowledge, the first correlation of an actin mRNA-sorting abnormality with a mammalian disease.

Ultrastructural evidence of abnormally short and maldistributed actin stress fibers in osteopetrotic (toothless) rat osteoblasts in situ after detergent perfusion

Osteopetrosis is a heterogenous group of metabolic bone diseases characterized by a generalized increase in skeletal mass, the product of reduced bone resorption and interceptions in the development and/or function of osteoclasts. In one such mutation in the rat, toothless (tl), osteoblasts are absent from older bone surfaces and there is evidence for aberrant osteoblast gene expression and function. Given the emerging appreciation of the role of osteoblasts in the differentiation and activation of osteoclasts, we have examined ultrastructural features of the cytoskeleton of normal and mutant osteoblasts after perfusion fixation with the non-ionic detergent Triton X-100. This procedure reduces the electron density of the cytoplasm, rendering visible the microfilamentous network in osteoblasts. In normal osteoblasts a prominent system of stress fibers (bundles of actin microfilaments) run parallel to the cell membrane adjacent to osteoid surfaces, stretching for 75% of that distance. However, only 50% of mutant (tl) osteoblasts had stress fibers and in these cells stress fibers were either significantly shorter (18% of normal) or distributed intracellularly rather than along the osteoid surface. In mutant osteoblasts without stress fibers, 20% showed ultrastructural signs of cell degeneration. Given the role of stress fibers in cellular attachment ot extracellular matrices, these observations suggest that the reduced number of osteoblasts in tl rats may be related to their inability to organize actin filaments and adhesion plaques for attachment to bone surfaces. We propose that a feature of osteopetrosis in the tl rat is a disruption of the mechanisms that regulate the synthesis, sorting, and/or assembly of actin.

Demonstration of an osteoblast defect in two cases of human malignant osteopetrosis. Correction of the phenotype after bone marrow transplant

Osteopetrosis is an inherited disorder characterized by bone sclerosis due to reduced bone resorption. Here we report that human osteopetrotic osteoblast-like (Ob) cells express a defective phenotype in primary cultures in vitro, and that bone marrow transplant (BMT) corrects osteoblast function. DNA analysis at polymorphic short-tandem repeat loci from donor, recipient, and primary Ob-like cells pre-BMT and 2 yr post-BMT revealed that Ob were still of recipient origin post-BMT. Osteopetrotic Ob-like cells obtained pre-BMT showed normal and abnormal 1,25(OH)2D3-induced alkaline phosphatase (ALPase) and osteocalcin production, respectively, and failed to produce macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) in response to IL-1a and TNF-alpha. These parameters were all normalized in primary Ob-like cells prepared 2 yr post-BMT. X-linked clonality analysis at the human androgen receptor (HUMARA) locus revealed that osteoblasts showed a polyclonal and an oligoclonal derivation pre- and post-BMT respectively, indicating that a limited number of progenitor reconstituted this population. Because osteoblasts were still of recipient origin post-BMT, this suggests that functional osteoclasts, due to the replacement of hematopoeitic cells, provided a local microenvironment in vivo triggering the differentiation and/or recruitment of a limited number of functional osteoblasts.