Abstract
Osteoporosis is a progressive skeletal disease characterized by decreased bone mass and degraded bone microstructure, which leads to increased bone fragility and risks of bone fracture. Osteoporosis is generally age related and has become a major disease of the world. Uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying osteoporosis and developing effective prevention and therapy methods has great significance for human health. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent cells capable of differentiating into osteoblasts, adipocytes, or chondrocytes, and have become the favorite source of cell-based therapy. Evidence shows that during osteoporosis, a shift of the cell differentiation of MSCs to adipocytes rather than osteoblasts partly contributes to osteoporosis. Thus, uncovering the molecular mechanisms of the osteoblast or adipocyte differentiation of MSCs will provide more understanding of MSCs and perhaps new methods of osteoporosis treatment. The MSCs have been applied to both preclinical and clinical studies in osteoporosis treatment. Here, we review the recent advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating osteoblast differentiation and adipocyte differentiation of MSCs and highlight the therapeutic application studies of MSCs in osteoporosis treatment. This will provide researchers with new insights into the development and treatment of osteoporosis.
Highlights
Osteoporosis is a systemic bone disease characterized by low bone mass and the deteriorative microarchitecture of bone tissue, which leads to increased bone fragility and the risk of bone fracture [1,2]
Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exhibit reduced capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts and an increased capacity to differentiate into adipocytes, which results in a reduction in bone formation and an increase in marrow fat accumulation [4,8]
It is demonstrated that the shift of cell differentiation of Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to adipocytes rather than osteoblasts partly contributes to osteoporosis [8,9]
Summary
Osteoporosis is a systemic bone disease characterized by low bone mass and the deteriorative microarchitecture of bone tissue, which leads to increased bone fragility and the risk of bone fracture [1,2]. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) exhibit reduced capacity to differentiate into osteoblasts and an increased capacity to differentiate into adipocytes, which results in a reduction in bone formation and an increase in marrow fat accumulation [4,8]. It is demonstrated that the shift of cell differentiation of MSCs to adipocytes rather than osteoblasts partly contributes to osteoporosis [8,9]. We review the current understanding of MSCs and summarize the recent advances of the molecular mechanisms regulating osteoblast and adipocyte differentiation of MSCs. Given the special role of MSCs in osteoporosis and their multipotency, MSCs-based preclinical and clinical studies for osteoporosis are introduced by focusing on bone marrow MSCs (BM-MSCs) and adipose tissue-derived MSCs (AD-MSCs). The underlying mechanisms of these transcription factors regulating the differentiation of MSCs need further study
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