Strain engendered within bone tissue by mechanical loading of the skeleton is a major influence on the processes of bone modeling and remodeling and so a critical determinant of bone mass and architecture. The cells best placed to respond to strain in bone tissue are the resident osteocytes and osteoblasts. To address the mechanisms of strain-related responses in osteoblast-like cells, our group uses both in vivo and in vitro approaches, including a system of four-point bending of the substrate on which cells are cultured. A range of cell lines can be studied using this system but we routinely compare their responses to those in primary cultures of osteoblast-like cells derived from explants of mouse long bones. These cells show a range of well-characterized responses to physiological levels of strain, including increased proliferation, which in vivo is a feature of the osteogenic response.
CITATION STYLE
Galea, G. L., & Price, J. S. (2015). Four-point bending protocols to study the effects of dynamic strain in osteoblastic cells in vitro. Methods in Molecular Biology, 1226, 117–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1619-1_10
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