Anyone have any experience with the effects of commonly used media thickeners such as dextran on osteoclast activity? We are finding that dextran greatly reduces the ability of osteoclasts to form resorption pits. We're looking for other thickeners we can use to increase media viscosity without affecting osteoclast activity. Finding zilch online.
Sorry I cannot anwer your main question, but I think what you say about dextran deserves an interest. In fact dextran is shown to accelerate the formation of collagen fibrils due to the so called "molecular crowding" effect (you can search scholar for "dextran molecular crowding collagen"). Formation of collagen might interfere with the bone resorption. Don't you think this property could be benefitial in the processes like osteonecrosis? To have more viscous medium without having the effect of molecular crouding... you might still look up the papers on this topic. Hope I helped.
Thanks very much, Sergey! I will look into molecular crowding. I too was thinking about the effect of viscosity in regards to osteolysis, I think it's an interesting question. :)
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