Calcitonin is a well known inhibitor of osteoclastic bone resorption, both in vivo and in vitro. However, it is also known that calcitonin has only a transient inhibitory effect on bone resorption. The mechanism for this so-called "escape from inhibition" phenomenon is not clear. In the present study, the inhibitory effect of calcitonin on phorbol ester-induced bone resorption was examined in cultured neonatal mouse calvaria. Bone resorption was assessed as the release of radioactivity from bones prelabelled in vivo with 45Ca. Two protein kinase C-activating phorbol esters, phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate and phorbol-12,13-dibutyrate, both stimulated 45Ca release in 120-h cultures at a concentration of 10 nmol/l. Calcitonin (30 nmol/l) inhibited phorbol ester-stimulated bone resorption without any "escape from inhibition". This was in contrast to the transient inhibitory effect of calcitonin on bone resorption stimulated by parathyroid hormone (10 nmol/l), prostaglandin E2 (2 mumol/l), and bradykinin (1 mumol/l). Our results suggest that activation of protein kinase C produces a sustained inhibitory effect of calcitonin on bone resorption.