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Endocrinology and Metabolism |
1 Institute of Biomedicine, Department of Anatomy, University of Turku, FIN-20520 Turku, Finland.2 Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.3 Medicine and Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN.4 Pharmatest Services Ltd, Turku, Finland.
aAuthor for correspondence. Fax 358-2-3337352; e-mail kalervo.vaananen{at}utu.fi.
| Abstract |
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Methods: We investigated the serum activity of the osteoclast-derived 5b isoform of TRACP (TRACP 5b) and concentrations of the bone formation marker osteocalcin in clinically affected individuals, unaffected gene carriers, and healthy controls from 10 ADO2 families with known ClCN7 gene mutations. Bone fracture prevalence was studied in association with the serum markers.
Results: Similar to total TRACP, TRACP 5b was significantly increased in clinically affected individuals compared with age-matched controls. TRACP 5b correlated significantly with total TRACP (r = 0.833; P <0.001), suggesting that most of the TRACP in the serum of ADO2 patients is osteoclast-derived TRACP 5b. Osteocalcin was significantly increased in affected adults and slightly decreased in affected children. TRACP 5b and total TRACP were significantly increased in clinically affected individuals with severe fractures (P <0.05).
Conclusions: The results indicate that in ADO2, serum TRACP 5b reflects the number of osteoclasts and that the extremely high serum TRACP 5b activity is a specific indicator of the disease. Similar to total TRACP, TRACP 5b appears to be a potentially useful marker to stratify individuals with ClCN7 gene mutations into clinically affected and unaffected gene carriers. It may also have a prognostic value in the prediction of fractures in patients with a ClCN7 gene mutation.
| Introduction |
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ClCN7 provides the chloride conductance required for efficient proton pumping in the osteoclast ruffled membrane during bone resorption (4). In 2001, Cleiren et al. (7) reported seven distinctive mutations in the ClCN7 gene in ADO2 patients, of which five were missense mutations (G215R, P249L, R286W, R767W, and G765B), one was a deletion of a single amino acid (
L688), and one was a deletion of two nucleotides causing a frameshift mutation affecting the carboxyl terminus of the protein (2423delAG). In 2003, Waguespack et al. (8) reported two novel missense mutations (L213F and R762L) in the ClCN7 gene. All of the known ClCN7 mutations are located in conserved regions of the gene, in both extracellular and intracellular parts of the transmembrane protein, and it is hypothesized that these mutations cause disease through a dominant negative mechanism. Mutations in both ClCN7 alleles lead to severe recessive osteopetrosis in humans and mice (4) as well as to intermediate autosomal recessive osteopetrosis in humans (13).
A histologic evaluation of bone biopsies from ADO2 patients reveals a marked increase in the number and size of osteoclasts, which demonstrate no signs of active bone resorption (5)(14)(15). Ultrastructural examinations have shown that osteoclasts from ADO2 patients have no ruffled borders, but they do have normal clear zones and numerous lysosomal vacuoles containing dense substances (16). Individuals with ADO2 have significantly increased serum activities of total tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRACP; EC 3.1.3.2) and the BB isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK-BB) (17)(18)(19). Although both of these enzymes are closely related to osteoclasts, their exact roles have remained enigmatic in osteoclast physiology. One explanation for the increased serum activities of both TRACP and CK-BB may be the significantly increased number of osteoclasts observed in ADO2 (17). Urinary concentrations of bone resorption markers, including type I collagen C- and N-telopeptides, hydroxyproline, and free deoxypyridinoline, are all within reference values in adult ADO2 patients, and serum osteocalcin concentrations are slightly, but not significantly, increased (20).
In human blood, TRACP exists in two differently glycosylated forms: TRACP 5a and 5b. TRACP 5a is derived from inflammatory macrophages and TRACP 5b from bone-resorbing osteoclasts (21). Increased total TRACP activity in serum (the combined activity of TRACP 5a and 5b) has been observed in ADO2 patients, but nothing is known about the isoform distribution. In this study we investigated the serum activity of the osteoclast-derived TRACP 5b isoform in ADO2 patients. We also measured a bone formation marker, total serum osteocalcin, to indirectly assess bone formation rates in ADO2 patients and studied correlations between these serum markers and a disease severity score based on fracture history.
| Materials and Methods |
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The research protocol was approved by the Indiana University Institutional Review Board. All participants or their parents (in the case of children under 18 years) gave written informed consent before participating in the study.
measurement of serum tracp 5B and total serum osteocalcin
Serum TRACP 5b activity and total serum osteocalcin were measured with in-house immunoassays, as described previously (22)(23). Serum TRACP 5b results were then compared with total serum TRACP values, as measured previously (18). The intra- and interassay variability (CV) is 3.2% and 6.9%, respectively, for TRACP 5b (22) and <5% and <8%, respectively, for osteocalcin (23).
clinical severity score
The participants were classified into three clinical severity score classes, 0, 1, or 2, based on their fracture history. Individuals with fewer than three fractures, excluding hip and femur fractures, were classified with score 0. Severity score 1 was given to individuals with a history of 310 fractures or with 1 hip or femur fracture. The most severely affected individuals were classified as a severity score 2 and had either >10 fractures or >1 hip or femur fracture. Finger and toe fractures were considered as minor fractures and therefore left out of the calculations. Fracture history was unknown for four of the healthy controls, and they were excluded from the fracture analysis.
statistical analysis
Because of the nongaussian distributions, all results are presented as medians with lower and upper quartiles. Comparisons between the groups were made with the nonparametric Wilcoxon test with Bonferroni adjustment. Nonparametric Spearman correlation was used for correlation analysis. A P value <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. The statistical analysis was performed only for those study subgroups having more than three individuals.
| Results |
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The usefulness of any diagnostic test lies in its ability to distinguish clinically affected from healthy individuals. We investigated the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for total TRACP and TRACP 5b in our study population, which is at risk for having a ClCN7 gene mutation and ADO2. We included unaffected gene carriers in this analysis by combining them with healthy controls. Using our results, we determined empiric cutoff values to maximize the separation between clinically affected individuals and others (Fig. 1, A and B
). In the pediatric group, both total TRACP and TRACP 5b were 100% sensitive and specific for the diagnosis of ADO2 when the diagnostic cutoffs of 35 and 60 U/L, respectively, were used. In adults, there was some overlap between unaffected gene carriers and clinically affected individuals, which may be attributable to the differential phenotypic expression of ADO2 and also to the classification criteria used in this study. In adults, at a diagnostic cutoff of 17 U/L, the diagnostic sensitivity for total TRACP was 100% and specificity was 98% even when carriers were included in the analysis. For TRACP 5b, the diagnostic sensitivity in the adult group was 97% when the diagnostic cutoff was set at 13 U/L. The diagnostic specificity for TRACP 5b was 99%, and without the one anomalous individual in the carrier group who had increased serum biochemistries, the specificity would have been 100%. One individual with ADO2 had a TRACP 5b value below the cutoff and has had only one fracture during his life. We postulated that his false-negative result may in part be secondary to mild manifestation of ADO2. However, this same individual had a high total TRACP activity and was also the only clear outlier in Fig. 2
, suggesting that he might have an altered serum TRACP 5a activity.
Individuals with ADO2 had more fractures than unaffected gene carriers and healthy controls, in both children (P <0.05) and adults (P <0.001). All four pediatric individuals with a severity score of 1 or 2 had ADO2. In the adult group, all 12 individuals with a severity score of 2 were clinically affected. Twenty-three adults had a severity score of 1, and they were distributed equally among all populations: 44% (10 of 23) clinically affected, 13% (3 of 23) unaffected gene carriers, and 44% (10 of 23) controls. Adult healthy controls and unaffected gene carriers did not differ in their fracture prevalence; 8% (10 of 122) of healthy individuals and 11% (3 of 28) of unaffected gene carriers had a severity score of 1. In the pediatric group, all controls and unaffected gene carriers had a severity score of 0. Interestingly, a high number of clinically affected individuals did not have severe or multiple fractures, with 40% (15 of 37) of affected adults and 75% (12 of 16) of affected children classified as having a severity score of 0 (Table 3
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We also analyzed whether serum markers were correlated to the fracture severity score in clinically affected individuals only because unaffected gene carriers did not differ from age-matched healthy controls in their fracture incidences. Both total TRACP and TRACP 5b showed a strong positive association with fracture severity scores in both the pediatric (n = 16) and adult (n = 37) affected individuals (Table 4
). In the pediatric group, one individual with a severity score of 1 and both individuals with a severity score of 2 had markedly increased serum activities of both total TRACP and TRACP 5b. However, statistical analysis was not performed because of the small number of individuals in the pediatric group. In the adult group, both total TRACP and TRACP 5b were significantly increased in individuals with severity scores of 1 and 2 compared with individuals with a severity score of 0 (P <0.01 and <0.05, respectively). We observed no statistically significant difference between individuals with severity scores of 1 and 2, but TRACP 5b activity was slightly more increased in the latter group. Total osteocalcin was not associated with fracture severity scores (Table 4
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| Discussion |
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The exact biological function of TRACP remains unknown, but it seems to have an important role in bone resorption. This conclusion can be derived from both TRACP-deficient (25) and TRACP-overexpressing (26) mouse models, which show mild osteopetrosis and osteopenia, respectively. When osteoclasts resorb bone, they secrete acid and proteases into the resorption lacuna between the bone matrix and the cell membrane. The secreted acid and proteases start the resorption process in the lacuna, and the released matrix degradation products undergo endocytosis and transcytosis, and are finally secreted through a functional secretory domain in the basolateral membrane of the osteoclast (27). It has been hypothesized that TRACP may participate in the degradation of organic bone matrix components in the transcytotic pathway of resorbing osteoclasts (28) and that secreted TRACP would be a marker of osteoclast activity. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that serum TRACP 5b activity is significantly increased in conditions of increased bone resorption, such as osteoporosis and breast cancer with bone metastases (29), and decreased during antiresorptive treatment (22)(30), supporting the hypothesis that TRACP 5b may be a marker of osteoclast activity. However, the extremely high increase in serum TRACP 5b in ADO2 patients is several orders of magnitude higher than in any bone disease with increased bone resorption, despite the fact that bone degradation is significantly decreased in ADO2. An explanation of this contradictory situation may be elucidated by the disease itself. Formation and attachment of osteoclasts is normal in ADO2 patients, but the initial step of bone degradation, demineralization of the hydroxyapatite in bone matrix, is blocked because of the defective ClCN7. It may well be that when osteoclasts from ADO2 patients are not able to resorb bone because of the defect in acidification of resorption lacunae, they will simply produce and release more TRACP 5b with the aim of compensating for the low bone degradation rate. The fact that ADO2 patients have increased numbers of large nonfunctional osteoclasts (5) also suggests that TRACP 5b may be a marker of osteoclast number rather than osteoclast activity.
Very recently Chu et al. (31) presented direct evidence for serum TRACP 5b association with the number of osteoclasts. They showed that serum TRACP 5b had a strong correlation with histologic indices of osteoclasts in patients with renal bone disease. This conclusion is further supported by our previous findings with in vitro cultures of nonresorbing osteoclasts on plastic surface, where significant positive correlation was observed with the TRACP 5b secreted into the culture medium and the number of multinucleated osteoclasts (32). Therefore, in the case of ADO2, the highly increased serum TRACP 5b activity may be attributable to both increased compensatory secretion and increased numbers of inactive osteoclasts.
Bone turnover in ADO2 patients is disturbed mainly because of the bone resorption defect. However, some studies of bone formation markers in ADO2 have shown slightly altered profiles for serum osteocalcin (or bone Gla protein) but unchanged profiles for bone-specific alkaline phosphatase (33)(34). Our findings with serum total osteocalcin are consistent with the previous studies, showing slightly altered serum total osteocalcin concentrations in clinically affected individuals compared with healthy individuals. Although not very dramatic, an interesting finding was that, in the pediatric population, the clinically affected individuals had lower osteocalcin concentrations than controls or carriers. This observation may be explained by the tightly coupled bone resorption and formation mechanism; when bone resorption is decreased as a result of the ClCN7 gene defect, bone formation is also down-regulated. Another explanation may be that the concentrations of serum markers such as osteocalcin vary greatly depending on age and pubertal status in growing children. In adults, clinically affected individuals had small but significant increases in serum osteocalcin, which may result from an increased fracture rate and subsequent fracture healing. However, total osteocalcin did not show any clear association with fracture history as assessed by the three fracture severity score classes. When osteocalcin was compared with total TRACP or TRACP 5b, it correlated more strongly with TRACP 5b than with total TRACP. This suggests that, compared with total TRACP, serum TRACP 5b more specifically reflects events in the bone microenvironment.
Given that the genetic basis of ADO2 has been elucidated, individuals with mutations in the ClCN7 gene can now be distinguished from healthy individuals through targeted genetic testing. However, the penetrance of ADO2 is reported to be 6694% (2)(3)(8)(10), meaning that not all individuals heterozygous for a ClCN7 gene mutation will develop clinical characteristics of ADO2. The traditional radiographic diagnosis of ADO2 has been the best way to distinguish ADO2 patients from unaffected gene carriers and healthy individuals. However, recent evidence shows that the rapid, easy measurement of serum markers, such as total TRACP and CK-BB (18) and now TRACP 5b, offers a simple, very sensitive and specific way to stratify patients with ClCN7 mutation into clinically affected and unaffected gene carriers and to distinguish individuals with ADO2 from healthy individuals. These tests also permit more widespread testing of at-risk individuals who cannot obtain radiographs or genotyping.
The high fracture frequency in ADO2 patients has been observed by several researchers (2)(10)(11)(12), and we made the same observation in our study. As expected, unaffected gene carriers had normal serum biochemistries as well as a fracture frequency comparable to healthy controls. For the first time, we studied and were able to show a clear correlation of fracture history with both total TRACP and TRACP 5b in ADO2 patients. As our results illustrate, both total TRACP and TRACP 5b are able to distinguish the patients with the most severely fracture histories (severity scores 1 and 2) from milder cases (severity score 0) among individuals with ADO2. Because total TRACP and TRACP 5b appear to correlate with fracture prevalence, another advantage of measuring these serum markers in clinically affected patients may be to determine which individuals are at the highest risk for fracture. Therefore, serum total TRACP and TRACP 5b might have prognostic value in the prediction of fractures in patients with ADO2.
In conclusion, increased serum total TRACP activity in ADO2 patients is attributable to increased osteoclast-derived TRACP 5b, demonstrating that TRACP 5b may be a more specific serum marker for ADO2 than total TRACP. The measurement of serum TRACP 5b permits easy, cost-efficient testing of at-risk individuals with a high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. The additional advantage over traditional radiographs is the clear association of serum TRACP 5b with fracture history in individuals with ADO2. TRACP 5b may therefore also have prognostic value in the prediction of fractures in patients with ClCN7 gene mutations and clinical manifestations of ADO2.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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| References |
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