Bafilomycin A1 inhibits bone resorption and tooth eruption in vivo.

It has been shown that a specific inhibitor of vacuolar H(+)-ATPases, bafilomycin A1, inhibits bone resorption by isolated chicken osteoclasts by blocking the proton pump in the ruffled border membrane. We report here the effects of bafilomycin A1 on bone resorption in vivo. Using a cannulated osmotic minipump delivery system, we infused bafilomycin locally to the eruption pathway of permanent premolars of beagle dogs. We used pit formation by osteoclasts in vitro to estimate the concentrations and heat stability of bafilomycin to be used in vivo. In this model, osteoclasts were cultured on thin bone slices, in which they form pits indicative of resorption. After 2 weeks preincubation at 37 degrees C, bafilomycin concentrations of 10(-6) and 10(-7) M but not 10(-8) M completely inhibited the resorptive activity of cultured osteoclasts, and the two larger doses were chosen for use in vivo. Local delivery of 10(-6) M bafilomycin to the eruption pathway of the fourth permanent mandibular premolar during mideruption inhibited tooth eruption by blocking bone resorption as assayed by radiography, light microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Bafilomycin at 10(-7) M had similar but less intensive effects. Moreover, osteoclasts in the alveolar bone of crypts treated with 10(-7) M bafilomycin A1 stained very weakly for tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase. The effect of bafilomycin on bone resorption was shown to be very local, and no side effects of treatment with bafilomycin were observed in adjacent teeth or the behavior of dogs. We report here, for the first time, inhibition of tooth eruption caused by inhibited bone resorption using bafilomycin A1 in vivo.