Nuclear localization of type I parathyroid hormone/parathyroid hormone-related protein receptors in deer antler osteoclasts: evidence for parathyroid hormone-related protein and receptor activator of NF-kappaB-dependent effects on osteoclast formation in regenerating mammalian bone.

Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is not required for osteoclastogenesis during embryonic development; however, after birth it has been shown to regulate osteoclast formation during tooth eruption. Our study explores the hypothesis that PTHrP also may regulate osteoclast differentiation in the regenerating skeletal tissues of deer antlers, bones capable of complete regeneration. Osteoclast-like multinucleated cells (MNCs) formed spontaneously in micromass cultures derived from antler cartilage and these cells had the phenotypic characteristics of osteoclasts. PTHrP and receptor activator of NF-kappaB ligand (RANKL) stimulated antler osteoclast formation although the effect of RANKL was less marked than that of PTHrP. The addition of osteoprotegerin (OPG) only partially decreased (by approximately 65%) the number of osteoclasts in PTHrP-treated cultures. To determine whether PTHrP also potentially could have direct effects on antler osteoclasts, we studied, by confocal microscopy, the expression of the type I PTH/PTHrP receptor (PTH1R) in MNCs cultured on glass and found the receptor protein to have a nuclear localization. In situ hybridization showed that antler MNCs also expressed PTH1R and PTHrP messenger RNAs (mRNAs). PTHrP was immunolocalized in MNCs cultured on glass but was undetectable in cells resorbing a dentine substrate. In tissue sections of antler cartilage, PTHrP and PTH1R were expressed in vitronectin receptor-positive (VNR+) osteoclast-like cells localized in the perivascular stroma. Thus, these data show that PTHrP plays a role in the regulation of osteoclast differentiation in regenerating skeletal tissues and that PTHrP can have effects on osteoclastogenesis that are independent of RANKL synthesis. Ours is the first study to describe the expression of the type I PTH/PTHrP receptor in mammalian osteoclasts at a protein and mRNA level, which indicates that PTHrP also may have a direct effect on osteoclasts. This also is the first study to show a nuclear localization of the PTHIR in cells of the osteoclast lineage, although the functional significance of this observation has yet to be established.