Isolation of osteoclast and its histochemical identification

Osteoclasts were prepared from medullary bones of laying hens kept for 10-14 days on low calcium diet (0.13% Ca). This treatment allowed osteoclasts to remove from bone trabeculae. Osteoclast obtained by this technique had high activities of ACPase, non-specific esterase and carbonic anhydrase in their cytoplasm, but no ALPase activity was present. This technique can be useful to study osteoclastic function.