Multinucleated cells formed on calcified dentine from mouse bone marrow cells treated with 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 have ruffled borders and resorb dentine.

Osteoclast-like multinucleated cells were formed from mouse bone marrow mononuclear cells, and their morphology on coverslips and on calcified dentine slices was compared by means of transmission electron microscopy. Addition of 1 alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 [1 alpha,25(OH)2D3] to bone marrow cells cultured on coverslips greatly stimulated the formation of multinucleated cells within 8 days. These multinucleated cells had the cytological features of osteoclasts (abundant pleomorphic mitochondria, a large number of vacuoles and lysosomes, many stacks of Golgi membranes, and an extensive canalicular system), but they developed neither ruffled borders nor clear zones. The multinucleated cells appeared to result from direct fusion of mononuclear progenitor cells, whose structural features were similar to those of multinucleated cells. Like isolated osteoclasts, both multinucleated cells and their precursors exhibited an intense reaction for tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRACP) in the cisterns of endoplasmic reticulum and lysosomes. Multinucleated cells formed from alveolar macrophages in the presence of 1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 were totally negative for TRACP reaction. When marrow cells were cultured on dentine slices in the presence of 1 alpha,25(OH)2D3, some of the multinucleated cells were located in the shallow resorption lacunae of dentine surfaces, and they developed the characteristic ruffled borders and clear zones. The narrow extracellular spaces of the ruffled borders, the adjacent pale endocytotic vacuoles, and the dark lysosomes located in the perinuclear cytoplasm of the multinucleated cells contained numerous apatite crystals delete in resorption lacunae. These results indicate that 1) the multinucleated cells formed on coverslips from mouse marrow cells treated with 1 alpha,25(OH)2D3 exhibit non-functional basic features of osteoclast morphology, and 2) differentiation of the multinucleated cells into functional osteoclasts requires some components of calcified dentine.