DOES COLCHICINE REALLY INDUCE BONE-FORMATION IN THE RODENT BONE-MARROW

Intravenous injection of a single dose of colchicine into inbred strai ns of BALB/c and CFW/L1 mice and into WAG rats did not effect rapid in tramedullar bone formation and resorption, as has been claimed by the research group from Tokyo Medical and Dental University [14-17]. The a pplied doses of colchicine arrested metaphase during the first 4 hours postadministration and were noxious for hemopoietic tissue (necrosis of bone marrow was evident in 2 and 4 day specimens), but on longitudi nal, serial sections of long bones there was no evidence of stimulatio n of osteogenesis at any point in time (2-26-day specimens). It is pos tulated that the system of ectopic osteogenesis by colchicine injectio n is not reproducible in mice and WAG rats, and the apparently osteoge nic effect of colchicine, observed by the Ogura group [14-17], was mis takenly described as congenital osteopetrosis.