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Osteocyte Mechanobiology

  • Osteocytes (T Bellido and J Klein-Nulend, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Osteoporosis Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Over the past decades, osteocytes have emerged as mechano-sensors of bone and master regulators of bone homeostasis. This article summarizes latest research and progress made in understanding osteocyte mechanobiology and critically reviews tools currently available to study these cells.

Recent Findings

Whereas increased mechanical forces promote bone formation, decrease loading is always associated with bone loss and skeletal fragility. Recent studies identified cilia, integrins, calcium channels, and G-protein coupled receptors as important sensors of mechanical forces and Ca2+ and cAMP signaling as key effectors. Among transcripts regulated by mechanical forces, sclerostin and RANKL have emerged as potential therapeutic targets for disuse-induced bone loss.

Summary

In this paper, we review the mechanisms by which osteocytes perceive and transduce mechanical cues and the models available to study mechano-transduction. Future directions of the field are also discussed.

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Correspondence to Paola Divieti Pajevic.

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Conflict of Interest

Yuhei Uda, Chao Shi, Ehab Azab, and Ningyuan Sun declare no conflict of interest.

Divieti Pajevic reports grants from NIH/NIAMS during the conduct of the study.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Osteocytes

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Uda, Y., Azab, E., Sun, N. et al. Osteocyte Mechanobiology. Curr Osteoporos Rep 15, 318–325 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11914-017-0373-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11914-017-0373-0

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