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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0022-1007/1998/3/775/ $5.00
The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Volume 187, Number 5, March 2, 1998 775-785

Articles

Age-resolving Osteopetrosis: A Rat Model Implicating Microphthalmia and the Related Transcription Factor TFE3

Katherine N. Weilbaecher*, Christine L. Hershey*, Clifford M. Takemoto*, Martin A. Horstmann*, Timothy J. Hemesath*, Armen H. Tashjian, Jr.{ddagger}, and David E. Fisher*

From the * Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Department of Pediatric Oncology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; and the {ddagger} Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School and Department of Cancer Cell Biology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Microphthalmia (Mi) is a basic helix-loop-helix–leucine zipper (b-HLH-ZIP) transcription factor implicated in pigmentation, mast cells, and bone development. Two dominant-negative mi alleles (mi/mi and Mior/Mior) in mice cause osteopetrosis. In contrast, osteopetrosis has not been observed in a number of recessive mi alleles, suggesting the existence of Mi protein partners important in osteoclast function. An osteopetrotic rat of unknown genetic defect (mib) has been described whose skeletal sclerosis improves dramatically with age and that is associated with pigmentation defects reminiscent of mouse mi alleles. Here we report that this rat strain harbors a large genomic deletion encompassing the 3' half of mi including most of the b-HLH-ZIP region. Osteoclasts from these animals lack Mi protein in contrast to wild-type rat, mouse, and human osteoclasts. Mi is not detectable in primary osteoblasts. In addition TFE3, a b-HLH-ZIP transcription factor related to Mi, was found to be expressed in osteoclasts, but not osteoblasts, and to coimmunoprecipitate with Mi. These results demonstrate the existence of members of a family of biochemically related transcription factors that may cooperate to play a central role in osteoclast function and possibly in age-related osteoclast homeostasis.

The authors thank Glenn Belinski and Edward Voelkel for care and breeding of the mib rats and calvaria preparation; Dr. Todd Golub, Dr. Michael Tomasson, and Dr. Cornelius Schmaltz for thoughtful discussions; Dr. Richard Sidman and Dr. Bela Kosaris for advice on immunohistochemical staining; Dr. Colin Sieff, Dr. Michael Pulsipher, Dr. Miyumi Tanaka, and Dr. Vivienne Rebel for help with human bone marrow cultures; Dr. Stephen Galli for the C57 mast cell line; and Dr. Ruth Haliban for 501 Mel cells.

This research was supported partly by National Institutes of Health grant DK-10206 (A.H. Tashjian, Jr.). D.E. Fisher is a Pew Foundation scholar and a James S. McDonnell Fellow. C.L. Hershey has a predoctoral fellowship from National Science Foundation.

Address correspondence to David E. Fisher, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney Street, Boston, MA 02115. Phone: 617-632-4916; Fax: 617-632-2085; E-mail: david_fisher{at}dfci.harvard.edu

1 Abbreviations used in this paper: 1,25-(OH)2D3, 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3; b-HLH-ZIP, basic helix-loop-helix-leucine zipper; Mi, microphthalmia; RT, reverse transcriptase; TF, transcription factor; TRAP, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase.


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