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. 2019 Oct 7;8:e50210. doi: 10.7554/eLife.50210

Figure 1. How biomechanical loading stimulates bone formation.

Figure 1.

In regions of bone that experience high biomechanical loads (red), the Piezo1 ion channel is activated in both osteoblasts (green) and osteocytes (olive). In osteocytes, the activation of Piezo1 leads to increased Wnt1 expression in a Yap/Taz-dependent manner. Wnt1 then activates the Wnt signaling pathway, which stimulates the formation of new bone (purple) by osteoblasts. In regions of bone that experience average or low biomechanical loads, the osteoblasts are inactive and there is no increase in bone mass.