Application of Retinoic Acid to Obtain Osteocytes Cultures from Primary Mouse OsteoblastsDeborah Mattinzoli 1, Piergiorgio Messa 2, Alessandro Corbelli 1, Masami Ikehata 1, Anna Mondini 1, Cristina Zennaro 3, Silvia Armelloni 1, Min Li 1, Laura Giardino 1, Maria Pia Rastaldi 1
1Renal Research Laboratory, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 2Department of Nephrology, Dialysis and Renal Transplant, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda
Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 3Renal Physiopathology Laboratory, Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, University of Trieste
Treatment of primary mouse osteoblasts with retinoic acid produces a homogeneous population of ramified cells bearing morphological and molecular features of osteocytes. The method overcomes the difficulty of obtaining and maintaining primary osteocytes in culture, and can be advantageous to study cells derived from transgenic models.