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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Calcif Tissue Int. 2013 Sep 4;94(1):25–34. doi: 10.1007/s00223-013-9774-y

Figure 1. Osteocytogenesis and osteocyte maturation.

Figure 1

(A) Stages of osteocytogenesis and main transcription factors involved in differentiation of osteoblast precursors towards mature osteocytes. (B) Row of osteoblasts (bottom red arrows); an osteocyte recently embedded (top red arrow); two osteocytes completely embedded in osteoid (bottom white arrows); an osteocyte fully embedded in mineralized bone matrix (top white arrow). Picture was contributed by Keith Condon, Indiana University School of Medicine, IN, USA. (C) Morphology of an early osteocyte being embedded in bone; with part of the cell surface partially embedded (left) and the other part totally embedded (right) in mineralized matrix, 10,000 ×, rat bone. Picture was contributed by Stephen B. Doty, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA. (Reprinted with kind permission of Elsevier, Basic and Applied Bone Biology, Chapter 2 Bone Cells, Bellido, Plotkin and Bruzzaniti).