Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (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.
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Academic Editor: Angelo Carpi
One of the unfortunate sequelae of increased life expectancy is a growing number of age-related degenerative diseases, a prime example being osteoporosis. This form of metabolic bone disease and related co-morbidities consume tremendous resources and costs from a nation's health care system. Osteoporosis results from genetic, age-related, and hormone-dependent causes as well as a compendium of secondary pathophysiological states. The presence of osteoporosis as a comorbidity confers a significant negative prognostic element following orthopedic procedures. In vitro and in vivo studies of osteoporotic bone implicate microarchitectural bone rarefaction, microenvironmental and functional disturbance of osteoblast-osteoclast coupling, and abnormal tissue and signalling molecule repertoires, each having detrimental effects on the regenerative and osteointegration processes. This review explores the pathophysiology of bone remodeling from a macro- and micro- systems biology standpoint with a focus on cytokine interactions. Furthermore, therapeutic interventions exploiting vulnerable nodes in these physiological networks will be posited. One exciting development in this area is the use of novel biomaterials.