Abstract
Recent advances in our understanding of blood vessels and vascular niches in bone convey their critical importance in regulating bone development and physiology. The contribution of blood vessels in bone functions and remodeling has recently gained enormous interest because of their therapeutic potential. The mammalian skeletal system performs multiple functions in the body to regulate growth, homeostasis and metabolism. Blood vessels provide support to various cell types in bone and maintain functional niches in the bone marrow microenvironment. Heterogeneity within blood vessels and niches indicate the importance of specialized vascular niches in regulating skeletal functions. In this review, we discuss physiology of bone vasculature and their specialized niches for hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal progenitor cells. We provide clinical and experimental information available on blood vessels during physiological bone remodeling.
Highlights
Bones, the structural and mechanical components of our body, are involved in whole-body metabolism, brain functions, mineral homeostasis, and blood cell generation (Clarke, 2008; Bahney et al, 2015; Ramasamy, 2017)
The structural and mechanical components of our body, are involved in whole-body metabolism, brain functions, mineral homeostasis, and blood cell generation (Clarke, 2008; Bahney et al, 2015; Ramasamy, 2017). They are highly vascularized, metabolically active tissues having an extensive network of blood vessels except in cartilaginous regions (Clarke, 2008; Marenzana and Arnett, 2013; Lafage-Proust et al, 2015)
Measurements in multiple animal species including humans estimate the proportion of cardiac output directed toward the skeletal system to be in the range of 5–15% (Marenzana and Arnett, 2013; Tomlinson and Silva, 2013; Prisby, 2017; Ramasamy, 2017)
Summary
The structural and mechanical components of our body, are involved in whole-body metabolism, brain functions, mineral homeostasis, and blood cell generation (Clarke, 2008; Bahney et al, 2015; Ramasamy, 2017). Expansion of type-H vessels by activating Notch or stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) in ECs leads to increases in trabecular bone, bone mass, and osteoprogenitor numbers (Kusumbe et al, 2014; Lafage-Proust et al, 2015; Ramasamy et al, 2016). Bulge structures express high levels of Dll4, but EC-specific Notch gain of function leads to increases in arteriole and type-H vessel frequency (Hankenson et al, 2015; Kusumbe et al, 2016).
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