Bone Biology

Bone biology and remodeling is an ongoing process that involves the functional integration of two processes, bone resorption and ossification, over the lifetime of an organism. Osteoclasts are responsible for bone resorption and are terminally differentiated multinucleated cells derived from the monocyte/macrophage lineage. The bone-forming cells responsible for ossification are osteoblasts which are differentiated from mesenchymal stem cells. Aberrant regulation of bone biology can result in a number of bone diseases, most notably osteoporosis.