The development and establishment of hemopoiesis in fetal and newborn osteopetrotic (op/op) mice.

Previous studies of young CSF-1-less osteopetrotic (op/op) mice demonstrate a severe deficiency of both macrophages and osteoclasts, resulting in excessive bone formation, occlusion of the marrow cavity, and reduced hemopoietic activity. The accompanying splenomegaly and prolonged splenic hemopoiesis observed in these mice suggests that osteopetrosis may perturb the normal progression of fetal hemopoietic development and obstruct the seeding of hemopoietic precursors into the bone marrow. This study demonstrates that the absence of CSF-1 does not affect the progression of hemopoietic development in fetal op/op mice until after colonization of the bone marrow. Significant deficiencies in marrow cellularity and progenitor cell content in the long bones of op/op mice were not evident prior to Day 2 postnatal, suggesting that the altered hemopoietic state of young op/op mice is not a consequence of abnormal fetal hemopoietic development, but is primarily due to the lack of functional osteoclasts in op/op fetuses and hence, impaired remodeling of the marrow cavity after birth.