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The New Understanding in Biological Functions of Osteocytes
Wang Meng1, Shang Peng1,2*
1Key Laboratory for Space Biosciences & Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Institute of Special Environmental Biophysics,Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China; 2State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southe
Abstract: For years， osteocytes have been considered as terminally differentiated， metabolically inactive “placeholders” within the bone matrix， which did not have an important physiological function. However， recent discoveries have shown that osteocytes are actually dynamic multifunctional cells， with many key regulatory roles in biological processes. Roughly， there are six parts of the biological function of osteocyte: orchestrators of bone remodeling， mechanosensation and transduction， endocrine function， crosstalk between osteocytes and muscle cells， matrix synthesis and degradation， gatekeepers of the bioactive proteins and minerals which stored within the extracellular
matrix.
matrix.
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