Organ cultures of newborn mouse calvaria were used to test the hypothesis that tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase might serve as a biochemical marker for osteoclast function. When bone resorption was stimulated in vitro with either parathyroid hormone or 1,25(OH)2D3, there was a significant increase in both tartrate-resistant and tartrate-sensitivity acid phosphatase activity in the medium relative to cultured controls. Tartrate-resistant activity was localized histochemically primarily over the osteoclast and appeared as three distinct activity bands when electrophoresed on polyacrylamide gels. The tartrate-sensitive activity was found primarily associated with bone cells other than the osteoclast using histochemical techniques, and was resolved into five bands on polyacrylamide gels. The results obtained from biochemical assays, histochemical observations, and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis suggest that bone resorption in vitro results in the release of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase from osteoclasts and tartrate-sensitive acid phosphatase from other bone cells as well as osteoclasts. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatases of bone may be suitable biochemical probes for osteoclasts function, but it will be necessary to achieve further purification in order to develop analytical methods with sufficient sensitivity and specificity (e.g., immunochemical) to ensure precise localization and quantitation.

We describe a physiologically significant mechanism through which interleukin-6 (IL-6) and a rising ambient Ca2+ interact to regulate osteoclastic bone resorption. VOXEL-based confocal microscopy of nonpermeabilized osteoclasts incubated with anti– IL-6 receptor antibodies revealed intense, strictly peripheral plasma membrane fluorescence. IL-6 receptor expression in single osteoclasts was confirmed by in situ reverse transcriptase PCR histochemistry. IL-6 (5 ng/l to 10 μg/l), but not IL-11 (10 and 100 μg/l), reversed the inhibition of osteoclastic bone resorption induced by high extracellular Ca2+ (15 mM). The IL-6 effect was abrogated by excess soluble IL-6 receptor (500 μg/l). Additionally, IL-6 (5 pg/l to 10 μg/l) inhibited cytosolic Ca2+ signals triggered by high Ca2+ or Ni2+. In separate experiments, osteoclasts incubated in 10 mM Ca2+ or on bone released more IL-6 than those in 1.25 mM Ca2+. Furthermore, IL-6 mRNA histostaining was more intense in osteoclasts in 10 or 20 mM Ca2+ than cells in 1.25 mM Ca2+. Similarly, IL-6 receptor mRNA histostaining was increased in osteoclasts incubated in 5 or 10 mM Ca2+. Thus, while high Ca2+ enhances IL-6 secretion, the released IL-6 attenuates Ca2+ sensing and reverses inhibition of resorption by Ca2+. Such an autocrine–paracrine loop may sustain osteoclastic activity in the face of an inhibitory Ca2+ level generated locally during resorption.

The bone is the third most common site of cancer metastasis. To invade the bone, tumor cells produce osteoclast-activating factors that increase bone resorption by osteoclasts. Here we report that human neuroblastoma cells that form osteolytic lesions in vivo do not produce osteoclast-activating factors but rather stimulate osteoclast activity in the presence of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. This alternative pathway of osteoclast activation involves a nonadhesive interaction between neuroblastoma cells and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Stimulated bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells express markedly increased levels of interleukin-6, which is then responsible for osteoclast activation. This report describes a critical role of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in bone destruction in cancer. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(4): 1129-35)