Osteoclasts in human osteopetrosis contain viral-nucleocapsid-like nuclear inclusions

Abstract

We report the discovery of nuclear inclusions in the osteoclasts of three unrelated patients with benign osteopetrosis that resemble the osteoclast inclusions characteristic of Paget's disease of bone. These inclusions are morphologically and dimensionally identical to the nucleocapsids of a virus of the Paramyxoviridae family. Supporting a possible viral association with benign osteopetrosis in the observation of the presence of antigens of respiratory syncytial virus, measles virus, and/or mumps virus in the cells of all five patients whose paraffin-embedded bone specimens were tested. These included two patients whose osteoclasts contained nuclear inclusions. No patients with the malignant form of the disease have been studied. There is as yet no proof that a virus is causally related to human osteopetrosis even though a virus can produce an avian form of the disease.