Targeting intercellular signals for bone regeneration from bone marrow mesenchymal progenitors.

There are tremendous unmet clinical needs for effective strategies to enhance bone regeneration in vivo. The sustained presence of multipotent mesenchymal progenitors in the bone marrow in aged and osteoporotic individuals offers the potential for therapeutic interventions to induce osteoblast production from the resident progenitors. Recent advances in understanding the intercellular signals governing osteogenic decisions may provide targets for developing novel bone-enhancing therapeutics.