Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 5, 2025

Differentiation of Functional Osteoclasts from Human Peripheral Blood CD14+ Monocytes
Published on: January 27, 2023
Osteoclasts secrete leukemia inhibitory factor to promote abnormal bone remodeling of subchondral bone in
Xin Zhao1,2, Long Ma1, Haohui Guo1
1Department of Orthopedics, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, 804 Shengli Street, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China.
Background:
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic degenerative joint disease. At present, there is no effective treatment to check the progression of osteoarthritis. Osteochondral units are considered to be one of the most important structures affecting the occurrence and development of osteoarthritis. Osteoclasts mediate an increase in abnormal bone remodeling in subchondral bone in the early stage of osteoarthritis. Here, alendronate (ALN) that inhibit osteoclasts was used to study the regulatory effect of osteoclast-derived leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) on early abnormal bone remodeling.
Methods:
This study involved 10-week-old wild-type female C57BL/6 mice and female SOST knockout (KO) mice that were divided into the sham, vehicle, ALN, and SOST KO groups.
Results:
The expression of LIF was found to decrease by inhibiting osteoclasts, and the histological OA score suggested that the degeneration of articular cartilage was attenuated. Additionally, micro-CT showed that osteoclasts inhibited in the early stage of OA could maintain the microstructure of the subchondral bone. The parameters of bone volume fraction (BV/TV), subchondral bone plate thickness (SBP.Th), and trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) of the treated group were better than those of the vehicle group.
Conclusions:
These results suggested that downregulating the expression of sclerostin in osteocytes by secreting LIF from osteoclasts, activate the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, and promote abnormal bone remodeling in OA. Therefore, clastokine LIF might be a potential molecular target to promote abnormal bone remodeling in early OA.
More Related Videos
11:47A Novel in vivo Gene Transfer Technique and in vitro Cell Based Assays for the Study of Bone Loss in Musculoskeletal Disorders
Published on: June 8, 2014
07:51Effect of Anti-c-fms Antibody on Osteoclast Formation and Proliferation of Osteoclast Precursor In Vitro
Published on: March 18, 2019
Related Concept Videos
Osteoclasts in Bone Remodeling
Bone Remodeling
Bone Cells and Tissue
Osteoblasts and Osteocytes
The osteoblast is the bone cell responsible for forming new bone tissue. It is found in the growing portions of bone, including the...
Hormones and Bone Tissue
Hormones That Influence Osteoblasts and/or Maintain the Matrix
Several hormones are necessary for controlling bone growth and maintaining the bone matrix. The pituitary gland secretes growth hormone (GH), which, as its name implies, controls bone growth. This happens in several ways: first, it triggers chondrocyte...
Bone Disorders
Bone deposition is also affected by the levels of sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone that promote osteoblast activity and bone matrix synthesis. When the level of these hormones decreases due to aging, it causes a reduction in bone deposition. As a result, bone resorption by osteoclasts...
Regulation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells