Substrate composition and dimensionality direct osteocyte gene expression

Background Osteoporosis has become a major public health problem, it is characterised by loss of bone mass and architecture due to disturbance in bone remodelling. Most current treatments retard bone loss but have no stimulating effect on bone formation [1]. Osteocytes act as an orchestrator for bone modelling, and secrete the glycoprotein sclerostin which negatively regulates bone formation and is a potential novel drug target [2]. Due to difficulty of accessing and studying osteocytes in vitro, an osteocyte-like MLO-Y4 cell line was developed. However, these cells only secrete sclerostin in trace amounts [3]. The objective of this study was to develop a novel biomimetic environment that would stimulate MLO-Y4 to express the osteocyte specific Sost gene.