TABLE I.

Alkaline Phosphatase Activity in Human Bone Marrow Cells with and without Dexamethasone Pretreatment^*

	Primary Culture	First-Passage Culture (nmol product/min/well)
	With Dexa methasone?	With Dexa methasone?	No BMP	With BMP-2	P Value for BMP vs. no BMP
Males	No	No	24.1 ± 11.9	24.2 ± 19.6	>0.3
		Yes‡	78.7 ± 54.7	94.0 ± 57.5	>0.3
	Yes†	No	65.4 ± 17.2	142.0 ± 66.2	0.01
		Yes‡	203.3 ± 64.0	323.6 ± 123.5	0.01
Females	No	No	24.4 ± 14.9	18.6 ± 11.9	>0.3
		Yes‡	69.2 ± 40.0	78.3 ± 44.3	>0.3
	Yes†	No	41.0 ± 15.8	67.7 ± 24.3	0.02
		Yes‡	137.9 ± 39.6	192.1 ± 60.4	0.03

^*Alkaline phosphatase activity was measured after individually culturing bone marrow cells from twelve men (average age, 45 ± 16 years) and twelve women (average age, 54 ± 11 years). Mononuclear cell samples from each patient were divided into two culture dishes for primary culture, with one of the dishes receiving 10⁻⁷M dexamethasone and the other not receiving dexamethasone. At confluence, the dexamethasone-treated cells and untreated cells were each replated (first passage), both with and without dexamethasone, and BMP was added as indicated. All results are the average of samples, assayed in triplicate, from all twelve men or all twelve women.

^†The values for male cells pretreated with dexamethasone were significantly higher than the values for female cells pretreated with dexamethasone; p < 0.01.

^‡All values with dexamethasone in first passage were significantly higher than those without dexamethasone in first passage; p < 0.01.