Decreased nitric oxide levels stimulate osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption both in vitro and in vivo on the chick chorioallantoic membrane in association with neoangiogenesis.

High nitric oxide (NO) levels inhibit osteoclast (OC)-mediated bone resorption in vivo and in vitro, and nitrate donors protect against estrogen-deficient bone loss in postmenopausal women. Conversely, decreased NO production potentiates OC bone resorption in vitro and is associated with in vivo bone loss in rats and humans. Previously, we reported that bone sections from rats administered aminoguanidine (AG), a selective inhibitor of NO production via inducible NO synthase, exhibited both increased OC resorptive activity as well as greater numbers of OC. Here, we investigated further whether AG promoted osteoclastogenesis, in addition to stimulating mature OC function, using a modified in vivo chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) system and an in vitro chick bone marrow OC-like cell developmental model. AG, focally administered in small agarose plugs placed directly adjacent to a bone chip implanted on the CAM, dose-dependently elicited neoangiogenesis while stimulating the number, size, and bone pit resorptive activity of individual OC ectopically formed in vivo. In addition to enhancing OC precursor recruitment via neoangiogenesis, AG also exerted other vascular-independent effects on osteoclastogenesis. Thus, AG promoted the in vitro fusion and formation from bone marrow precursor cells of larger OC-like cells that contained more nuclei per cell and exhibited multiple OC differentiation markers. AG stimulated development was inversely correlated with declining medium nitrite levels. In contrast, three different NO donors each dose-dependently inhibited in vitro OC-like cell development while raising medium nitrite levels. Therefore, NO sensitively regulates OC-mediated bone resorption through affecting OC recruitment (angiogenesis), formation (fusion and differentiation), and bone resorptive activity in vitro and in vivo. Possibly, the stimulation of neoangiogenesis and OC-mediated bone remodeling via AG or other pro-angiogenic agents may find clinical applications in reconstructive surgery, fracture repair, or the treatment of avascular necrosis.