Abstract
Osteoclasts are originated from hemopoietic progenitors of the monocyte/macrophage lineage and resorb mineralized tissues. Elevated osteoclast numbers and activity result in bone disease such as osteoporosis, Paget's disease, and tumor osteolysis. In order to identify the genes that are involved in osteoclast differentiation, microarray was performed after treated with RANKL for 12 h and 24 h in osteoclast precursors. The genes that changed by RANKL treatment were grouped by biological process or molecular function. Among them, the number of genes involved in signal transduction and nucleic acid binding was 6065 and 3066, respectively. When analyzed the number of genes changed more than 1.5 fold in the cells treated with RANKL for 12 h or 24 h compared to when RANKL was not treated, 83 and 62 genes were up-regulated; 56 and 62 genes were downregulated, respectively. To verify the microarray results, real-time RT-PCR for Cxcl1 and Slfn1genes that have not been reported yet related to osteoclast differentiation, as well as Ccl2 gene associated with osteoclast differentiation were carried out. Both experiments showed a similar result of more than 1.5 fold induction of these genes by RANKL treatment. These results suggest the possibility that Cxcl1 and Slfn1 may associate with osteoclastogenesis and provide that microarray is a useful tool to analyze the profile of genes changed during osteoclast differentiation by RANKL. Moreover, this gene profile contributes to understand the regulatory mechanisms involved in osteoclast differentiation and the pathogenesis, thus developing therapeutics of bone diseases such as osteoporosis.