IMR Press / FBL / Volume 12 / Issue 8 / DOI: 10.2741/2296

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Signaling and transcriptional regulation in osteoblast commitment and differentiation
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1 College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
2 Department of Cytokine Biology, Forsyth Institute, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
3 Department of Developmental Biology, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2007, 12(8), 3068–3092; https://doi.org/10.2741/2296
Published: 1 May 2007
Abstract

The major event that triggers osteogenesis is the transition of mesenchymal stem cells into bone forming, differentiating osteoblast cells. Osteoblast differentiation is the primary component of bone formation, exemplified by the synthesis, deposition and mineralization of extracellular matrix. Although not well understood, osteoblast differentiation from mesenchymal stem cells is a well-orchestrated process. Recent advances in molecular and genetic studies using gene targeting in mouse enable a better understanding of the multiple factors and signaling networks that control the differentiation process at a molecular level. Osteoblast commitment and differentiation are controlled by complex activities involving signal transduction and transcriptional regulation of gene expression. We review Wnt signaling pathway and Runx2 regulation network, which are critical for osteoblast differentiation. Many other factors and signaling pathways have been implicated in regulation of osteoblast differentiation in a network manner, such as the factors Osterix, ATF4, and SATB2 and the TGF-beta, Hedgehog, FGF, ephrin, and sympathetic signaling pathways. This review summarizes the recent advances in the studies of signaling transduction pathways and transcriptional regulation of osteoblast cell lineage commitment and differentiation. The knowledge of osteoblast commitment and differentiation should be applied towards the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic alternatives for human bone diseases.

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