Multinucleated rat alveolar macrophages express functional receptors for calcitonin

The fusion of mononuclear phagocytes occurs spontaneously in vivo and leads to the differentiation of either multinucleated giant cells or osteoclasts in chronic inflammatory sites or in bone, respectively. Although osteoclasts are responsible for resorbing bone, the functional role of giant cells in chronic inflammatory reactions and tumors remains poorly understood. We recently reported that the plasma membrane of multinucleated macrophages is, like that of osteoclasts, enriched in Na-K-adenosinetriphosphatases (ATPases). We also observed that the localization of their Na-K-ATPases is restricted to the nonadherent domain of the plasma membrane of cells both in vivo and in vitro, thus imposing a functional polarity on their organization. By following this observation, we wished to investigate whether these cells also expressed, like osteoclasts, functional receptors for calcitonin (CT). To this end, alveolar macrophages were fused in vitro, and both their structural and functional association with CT was analyzed and compared with those of mononucleated peritoneal and alveolar macrophages. Evidence is presented that multinucleated alveolar macrophages express a high copy number of functional receptors for CT. Our results also indicate that alveolar macrophages, much like peritoneal, express functional receptors for calcitonin gene-related peptide. It is suggested that multinucleated rat alveolar macrophages offer a novel model system to study CT receptors and that calcitonin may control local immune reactions where giant cells differentiate.