Bone formation

Bone healing

Progenitor cell

Anatomy

Neuroscience

Bioinformatics

Biology

Endocrinology

Bone remodeling

Osteoblast

Bone tissue

Stem cell

Cell biology

Operating system

Computer science

Process (computing)

Pathology

Bone remodeling period

Bone cell

In vitro

Osteoporosis

Genetics

Medicine

Bone Research

Bone remodeling replaces old and damaged bone with new bone through a sequence of cellular events occurring on the same surface without any change in bone shape. It was initially thought that the basic multicellular unit (BMU) responsible for bone remodeling consists of osteoclasts and osteoblasts functioning through a hierarchical sequence of events organized into distinct stages. However, recent discoveries have indicated that all bone cells participate in BMU formation by interacting both simultaneously and at different differentiation stages with their progenitors, other cells, and bone matrix constituents. Therefore, bone remodeling is currently considered a physiological outcome of continuous cellular operational processes optimized to confer a survival advantage. Bone remodeling defines the primary activities that BMUs need to perform to renew successfully bone structural units. Hence, this review summarizes the current understanding of bone remodeling and future research directions with the aim of providing a clinically relevant biological background with which to identify targets for therapeutic strategies in osteoporosis.

Bone remodeling: an operational process ensuring survival and bone mechanical competence