Developmental Biology I: Bone Development, Repair, and Regeneration

Defects of the skeletal system are extremely common and amount to a significant biomedical burden. Bone is a unique tissue that retains its regenerative potential into adulthood. The biology behind bone development, repair, and regeneration is thus of considerable interest, and may lead to advances in patient care. There are two distinct forms of osteogenesis; bones of the craniofacial skeleton develop via intramembranous ossification, whilst bones of the appendicular skeleton form by endochondral ossification. In this review, bone regenerative mechanisms based on skeletal stem cell function during fracture repair and during distraction osteogenesis are reviewed.  Skeletal stem cell function more closely follows developmental mechanisms during distraction osteogenesis compared to fracture osteogenesis.  This review contains 5 figures and 50 references. Keywords: skeletal stem cell, osteogenesis, skeletogenesis, mechanotransduction, regeneration, remodeling, focal adhesion kinase, ossification