Osteocytes and mechanical signaling in bone

Bone tissue has the capacity to adapt to its functional environment such that its morphology is "optimized" for the mechanical demand.The adaptive nature of the skeleton poses an interesting set of biological questions.How does bone sense mechanical signals? What cells are the sensing system? What are the mechanical signals that drive the system? What receptors are responsible for transducing the mechanical signal? What are the molecular responses to the mechanical stimuli? Studies of the characteristics of the mechanical environment at the cellular level,the forces that bone cells recognize,and the integrated cellular responses are providing new information at an accelerating speed.The review briefly demonstrates the mechanosensing,intracellular signaling pathways of bone in response to mechanical loading.