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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Biomaterials. 2012 Aug 19;33(33):8265–8276. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2012.07.041

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of intracellular and intercellular signaling and cellular dynamics in bone healing and bone remodeling.

Fig. 1

Bone regeneration or bone remodeling involves bone resorption by osteoclasts (OC) and the following bone formation by osteoblasts (OB) within basic multicellular units (BMU). Three cytokines were considered: TGFβ, Wnt and BMP2. Intracellular signaling pathway consists of Smad2/3, Smad 1/5, βCatenin, and Runx2 and Osx. Runx2 can promote the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into pre-osteoblasts (OBp) and can inhibit the differentiation of pre-osteoblasts into active osteoblasts (OBa). Osx also play a promoting role in the later stage of osteoblastic lineage which interacts with osteoclastic lineage through intercellular signaling pathway RANK-RANKL OPG.