Genome-wide expression analyses establish dendritic cells as a new osteoclast precursor able to generate bone-resorbing cells more efficiently than monocytes.

Dendritic cells (DCs), mononuclear cells that initiate immune responses, and osteoclasts (OCs), multinucleated bone-resorbing cells, are hematopoietic cells derived from monocytic precursor cells. Using in vitro generated dendritic cells, we previously showed that human and murine DCs could transdifferentiate into resorbing osteoclasts in the presence of macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) and receptor activator of NF-kappaB ligand (RANKL). In this study we globally compared by transcriptomic profiling this new osteoclast differentiation pathway from DCs with the canonical differentiation pathway from monocytes. DNA chip data revealed that starting from two very distinct cell types, treatment with M-CSF and RANKL generated two highly similar types of osteoclast. In particular, DC-derived osteoclasts expressed all the characteristic marker genes of monocyte-derived osteoclasts. Two major molecular events could be observed during osteoclastogenesis: downregulation of a large set of monocyte or DC specific markers, together with upregulation of characteristic osteoclast marker genes. Most interestingly, our transcriptomic data showed a closer molecular profile between DCs and OCs than between monocytes and OCs. Our data establish DCs as a new osteoclast precursor able to generate OCs more efficiently than monocytes.