8 - Interactions Among Osteoblasts, Osteoclasts, and Other Cells in Bone

Abstract

This chapter describes the cells of bone, and how they communicate with each other and with neighboring cells in the bone microenvironment. In approaching the way in which cells function to generate this complicated organ, the skeleton, under the control of hormones, cytokines, the central and sympathetic nervous systems, and being itself recently realized to function as an endocrine organ, we should recall that study of cells isolated and cultured from bone only began at the end of the 1970s. What is known now is that the cells of bone, including, but not limited to, osteoblasts and osteoclasts, communicate with each other through many local signaling processes. Furthermore, each cell lineage is subject to influences from cells of the immune and nervous systems, in order to achieve the very tight control of bone modeling and remodeling that is necessary to preserve the structural integrity and form of the skeleton and allow it to repair injury.