Figure 1. Osteoclastogenesis in PKU patients and healthy controls.

Numerous, multinucleated (<3 nuclei/cell), TRAP+ OCs (black arrows) were obtained from unstimulated PBMCs of PKU patients (A), while few OCs were observed in healthy control cultures (B). After addition of M-CSF and RANKL, a significant increase in osteoclastogenesis was observed both in PKU patient and in healthy control PBMC cultures (C, D, respectively). The OC number in PBMC cultures was quantified, resulting higher in PKU patients than in healthy controls (E). OCs were normally distributed, hence PKU patients and healthy controls were compared by means of unpaired T-test. OCs from PKU patients' PBMC cultures expressed vitronectin receptor (F).