Retrovirus-induced osteopetrosis in mice. Effects of viral infection on osteogenic differentiation in skeletoblast cell cultures.

Newborn female strain NMRI mice were injected with a mouse retrovirus (OA MuLV) known to induce osteopetrosis. Primary skeletoblast cell cultures were established from humeri and calvaria of 3-day-old, 7-day-old, and 28-day-old animals. Infectious ecotropic MuLV was found in all humerus cultures from infected animals and in 7-day and 28-day calvaria cell cultures. Levels of alkaline phosphatase activity were markedly higher in cultures of calvaria and humeri from infected mice than in those from controls. In vitro infection of undifferentiated periosteal cells was followed by a decrease in cell growth and an increase in alkaline phosphatase activity. In contrast, differentiated osteoblast-like cells were barely susceptible to OA MuLV infection, and the virus did not influence their cell growth or differentiation. Electron-microscopic studies of skeletal tissue from infected old osteopetrotic mice showed virus particles associated with and budding from osteocytes and accumulated in devitalized osteocyte lacunae. The results indicate that progenitor cells of the osteoblastic lineage represent the target cells for OA MuLV in bone tissue, that virus infection induces an increase in osteoblastic activity, and that infected cells produce virus until full development of the disease.