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. 2021 May 18;10:e68217. doi: 10.7554/eLife.68217

Figure 4. Mechanism of action of ERFE on bone involves interplay between osteoblastic RANKL and sclerostin.

Figure 4.

Osteoblasts from 5-month-old wild type and Erfe-/- mouse bone marrow cultured under differentiating conditions for 5 or 21 days. Loss of ERFE resulted in accelerated mineralization, noted by an increase in Von Kossa-stained nodules (A). Consistent with the cellular phenotype is the upregulation in Erfe-/- osteoblasts of Runx2, Sp7, Sost, and Tnfsf11 expression and suppression of Opg expression (quantitative PCR on 21-day cultures) (B) as well as increased secreted RANKL (ELISA on 3 day cultures) (C). In vitro osteoclastogenesis assays show that ERFE loss does not alter osteoclast number, as measured by TRAP staining (D), or the expression of osteoclast genes, namely Acp5 or Ctsk (E). Statistics: Mean ± SEM; unpaired two-tailed Student’s t-test; *p<0.05, **p<0.01; wells per group – three for A-C.