Differentiation of bone-resorbing osteoclasts from hematopoietic precursors depends upon expression of the cytokine receptor activator of NFB ligand (RANKL) by fibroblastic stromal cells, which some evidence suggests are of the osteoblast lineage. We have shown previously that hormonal-responsiveness of the murine RANKL gene is mediated in part by a distal enhancer that binds Runx2, a transcription factor required for commitment to the osteoblast lineage, supporting the idea that osteoclast-supporting stromal cells may be osteoblasts or their progenitors. However, in this study we demonstrate that parathyroid hormone (PTH) stimulation of RANKL in mice is not affected by a significant reduction in the number of osteoblasts. Consistent with this, neither Runx2, nor Cbfb, a binding partner essential for Runx activity, are required for basal or PTH-stimulated RANKL expression in fibroblastic stromal cell models. Nonetheless, RANKL responsiveness to PTH was elevated in cultured calvaria cells expressing high levels of osterix, another transcription factor required for osteoblast differentiation, and this was associated with elevated PTH receptor expression. The responsiveness of RANKL to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 was not elevated in the osterix-expressing cells. Together, these results suggest that commitment to the osteoblast lineage is not a requirement for RANKL gene transcription in fibroblastic stromal cells but may enhance responsiveness of this gene to specific hormones via control of their receptors.In the adult skeleton, bone is constantly renewed via the coordinated activity of osteoclasts that resorb bone and osteoblasts that form bone. These cells function within an anatomically distinct structure known as the basic multicellular unit (BMU), in which the osteoclasts are located in the lead and are followed by osteoblasts (1). Because of this organization, bone formation occurs only at sites of prior bone resorption and the recruitment of osteoblasts to such sites is known as coupling. While the mechanisms that underlie coupling are unknown, two different explanations have been proposed. According to the first, release of factors, such as TGF, from the bone matrix as a consequence of osteoclast activity recruits osteoblast progenitors and promotes their differentiation (2). Thus, osteoblastogenesis in this "serial" pathway of coupling is a consequence of osteoclastogenesis (3). However, in view of the fact that osteoclastogenesis depends upon support from stromal cells that may be of the osteoblastic lineage, the existence of a parallel pathway has been proposed (4). According to the parallel pathway model, osteoclast and osteoblast differentiation occur simultaneously due in part to the requirement of osteoblast lineage cells for osteoclast differentiation.The idea that osteoblast lineage cells are required for osteoclast differentiation originated from studies showing that osteoblasts or osteoblast-like cells, not osteoclast precursors, are targets of hormones that stimulate bone resorption (5-7). It ha...