Cellular specificity of the cure for neonatal osteopetrosis in the ia rat.

Osteopetrosis in the ia/ia rat is known to be the result of reduced bone resorption due to abnormal osteoclasts. Studies in this mutant have shown that mononuclear cells from normal littermates could cure the skeletal sclerosis and result in the formation of normal osteoclasts when transplanted into ia/ia rats. This investigation was pursued in an attempt to determine the cellular source of this cure by transplanting various populations of cells from 21-day-old normal rats to unrelated newborn ia/ia recipients. The effects of treatment were evaluated radiographically and by measuring the size of the tibial marrow cavity. The cellular suspensions that were effective in curing the disease were the Ficoll-Hypaque isolate of spleen, bone marrow, and newborn livers. The Ficoll-Hypaque isolates of lymph node, thymus, and blood, and the adherent pool of peritoneal cells and splenic cells did not produce a cure in the ia/ia recipients. These results suggest that the cellular source of the cure is a stem cell. This conclusion is further substantiated by the finding that Thy 1.1 antigen (a stem cell marker in the rat) is expressed on a majority of the cells from the donor sources that affected a cure.