Department of Spine Surgery, Honghui Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Xi'an, China.
Department of Orthopedic, Yan'an University Medical School, Yan'an, China.
J Cell Physiol. 2019 Feb;234(2):1008-1015. doi: 10.1002/jcp.27090. Epub 2018 Aug 26.
Melatonin's therapeutic potential has been highly underestimated because its biological functional roles are diverse and relevant mechanisms are complicated. Among the numerous biological activities of melatonin, its regulatory effects on pluripotent mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which are found in bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) and adipose tissue (AD-MSC), have been recently proposed, which has received increasingly more attention in recent studies. Moreover, receptor-dependent and receptor-independent responses to melatonin are identified to occur in these cells by regulating signaling pathways, which drive the commitment and differentiation of MSCs into osteogenic, chondrogenic, or adipogenic lineages. Therefore, the aim of our current review is to summarize the evidence related to the utility of melatonin as a regulatory agent by focusing on its relationship with the differentiation of MSCs. In particular, we aimed to review its roles in promoting osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation and the relevant signaling cascades involved. Also, the roles that melatonin and, particularly, its receptors play in these processes are highlighted.
褪黑素的治疗潜力被严重低估了，因为其生物学功能作用多样，相关机制复杂。在褪黑素的众多生物学活性中，最近提出了其对骨髓基质细胞（BMSCs）和脂肪组织（AD-MSC）中存在的多能间充质干细胞（MSCs）的调节作用，这在最近的研究中受到了越来越多的关注。此外，通过调节信号通路，在这些细胞中鉴定出了褪黑素的受体依赖性和非受体依赖性反应，从而驱动 MSCs 向成骨、软骨或成脂谱系的定向和分化。因此，我们目前的综述旨在通过重点关注褪黑素与 MSCs 分化的关系，总结其作为调节因子的用途的证据。具体来说，我们旨在综述其在促进成骨和软骨分化以及涉及的相关信号级联中的作用。此外，还强调了褪黑素及其受体在这些过程中的作用。
