Morgan Stacyann, Poundarik Atharva A, Vashishth Deepak
Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies (Rm 2213) and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180, USA.
Calcif Tissue Int. 2015 Sep;97(3):281-91. doi: 10.1007/s00223-015-0016-3. Epub 2015 Jun 6.
The remarkable mechanical behavior of bone is attributed to its complex nanocomposite structure that, in addition to mineral and collagen, comprises a variety of non-collagenous matrix proteins or NCPs. Traditionally, NCPs have been studied as signaling molecules in biological processes including bone formation, resorption, and turnover. Limited attention has been given to their role in determining the mechanical properties of bone. Recent studies have highlighted that NCPs can indeed be lost or modified with aging, diseases, and drug therapies. Homozygous and heterozygous mice models of key NCP provide a useful approach to determine the impact of NCPs on bone morphology as well as matrix quality, and to carry out detailed mechanical analysis for elucidating the pathway by which NCPs can affect the mechanical properties of bone. In this article, we present a systematic analysis of a large cohort of NCPs on bone's structural and material hierarchy, and identify three principal pathways by which they determine bone's mechanical properties. These pathways include alterations of bone morphological parameters crucial for bone's structural competency, bone quality changes in key matrix parameters (mineral and collagen), and a direct role as load-bearing structural proteins.
骨骼卓越的力学性能归因于其复杂的纳米复合结构，除了矿物质和胶原蛋白外，该结构还包含多种非胶原蛋白基质蛋白（NCPs）。传统上，NCPs一直被作为生物过程中的信号分子进行研究，这些生物过程包括骨形成、骨吸收和骨转换。人们对它们在决定骨骼力学性能方面的作用关注有限。最近的研究强调，随着衰老、疾病和药物治疗，NCPs确实会丢失或发生改变。关键NCP的纯合子和杂合子小鼠模型为确定NCPs对骨形态以及基质质量的影响，以及进行详细的力学分析以阐明NCPs影响骨骼力学性能的途径提供了一种有用的方法。在本文中，我们对大量NCPs对骨骼结构和材料层次结构进行了系统分析，并确定了它们决定骨骼力学性能的三个主要途径。这些途径包括对骨骼结构能力至关重要的骨形态学参数的改变、关键基质参数（矿物质和胶原蛋白）的骨质量变化，以及作为承重结构蛋白的直接作用。
