In vitro Osteoclastogenesis Assays Using Primary Mouse Bone Marrow Cells

Osteoclasts are a group of bone-absorbing cells to degenerate bone matrix and play pivotal roles in bone growth and homeostasis. The unbalanced induction of osteoclast differentiation (osteoclastogenesis) in pathological conditions, such as osteoporosis, arthritis and skeleton metastasis of cancer, causes great pain, bone fracture, hypercalcemia or even death to patients. In vitro osteoclastogenesis analysis is useful to better understand osteoclast formation in physiological and pathological conditions. Here we summarized an easy-to-follow osteoclastogenesis protocol, which is suitable to evaluate the effect of different factors (cytokines, small molecular chemicals and conditioned medium from cell culture) on osteoclast differentiation using primary murine bone marrow cells.