The roles of signaling pathways in bone repair and regeneration

Abstract

Regenerative medicine has sparked interest in potential strategies for bone repair. Bone defects are widespread and could be caused by trauma, congenital malformations, infections, and surgery. Although bone has a large self-healing capacity, some defects or fractures are too big to regenerate. To regenerate bone structures which can be used for treatment of patients, bone growth must be induced by a number of bioactive implantable materials, cell types and intracellular, and extracellular molecular signaling pathways. Since mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and their differentiation during remodeling processes have important roles in bone regeneration, it is believed that understanding molecular signaling pathways involved is crucial to the development of bone implants, bone substitute materials, and cell-based scaffolds for bone regeneration. In this review, we briefly introduce concepts in fracture repair and regeneration following bone injuries, and then discuss the current clinical methods in bone regeneration. In the next section, we review the involvement of the various key signaling pathways in bone regeneration.

The roles of Wnt/β‐catenin pathway in tissue development and regenerative medicine

“…From among three different sources of donor tissues, including heterologous (different species such as bovine), allogeneic (same species, different individual), and autologous (derived from the biopsy of tissue obtained from the host), autologous cells are most preferred due to minimized risk of rejection (Atala, ). However, in some situations such as end‐stage organ failure, where a tissue biopsy may not produce enough cells for expansion, or when there is no possibility of expanding cells from a distinct organ, such as the pancreas, stem cells are being alternative sources (Majidinia, Sadeghpour, & Yousefi, ). In addition, the proliferation capacity of many adult organ‐specific cells is low and long‐term in vitro cultivation, in particular, reduces their functional quality.…”

Underlying Signaling Pathways and Therapeutic Applications of Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields in Bone Repair

“…Although the bone has a large self-healing capacity, in some complex clinical conditions, such as large bone defects created by trauma, infection, tumor resection, and skeletal abnormalities, or in cases where bone repair failed, a large quantity of bone regeneration are required [103]. In this case, bone tissue engineering has emerged as a promising alternative to augment insufficient bone repair.…”

“…Bone loss and defective repair mechanisms brought by trauma, osteonecrosis, osteoporosis, arthritis, tumors, and other diseases affecting bone cause severe pain, dyskinesia, psychological agony, and economic burden to patients [1, 2]. Therefore, effective treatment strategy for promoting bone growth and remodeling is needed.…”

PDGF Enzymatic Activity in Patients With Delayed Fracture Consolidation

“…введение костная регенерация является сложным, хо-рошо организованным многоэтапным процессом [1,2], для интенсификации которого необходима активация ранней фазы ангиогенеза за счет экс-прессии тромбоцитарного фактора роста (pdgF) [3]. Было показано, что pdgF совместно с костным морфогенетическим белком 2 (ВМР-2) участвуют в формировании сосудистых трубочек, в миграции мультипотентных мезенхимальных стромальных клеток, а также в их дифференцировке в остео-бласты.…”