IGF System Components and Their Role in Bone Metabolism

Abstract

Bone is a dynamic tissue that is capable of repair after injury and remodeling in response to changes in physical strains that occur throughout life. This regenerative property of the bone is essential for the maintenance of the structural mass, strength, and shape of bone and for fracture healing The volume of bone and ultimately its strength are determined by the balance between two opposing processes, osteoclastic bone resorption and osteoblastic bone formation, that together constitute bone remodeling. The balance may be shifted to favor more formation than resorption, leading to net gain in bone as seen during puberty or during increased mechanical loading. The balance can also be shifted to favor less formation than resorption as seen during disuse or during chronic disease states such as osteoporosis. Studies in a number of laboratories have focused on understanding the regulation of the bone resorption and bone formation processes based on the premise that insights on molecular signaling messenger molecules that are responsible for controlling these two processes could lead to new treatments for osteoporosis. The following section briefly describes the bone cell parameters involved in bone formation and bone resorption processes and the corresponding regulatory signaling molecules that are responsible for regulating these bone cell parameters.KeywordsHuman OsteoblastHuman Bone CellNormal Human OsteoblastSkeletal Growth FactorThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.