Osteocytes articles from across Nature Portfolio

Wnt signalling is crucial for bone formation, as mutations in this pathway can lead to skeletal disorders. This Review summarizes current studies on Wnt signalling and advances in therapeutic approaches targeting Wnt antagonists to enhance bone formation.

To date, the dogma in the field has been that RANKL, an essential cytokine in osteoclast maturation, is released by osteoblasts as a way to coordinate bone growth and bone loss during adult bone remodeling. Now, Hiroshi Takayanagi and colleagues, as well as Charles O'Brien and colleagues, have independently found that osteocytes are the predominant source of RANKL in the adult mouse. As RANKL signaling is a key target in treating osteoporosis, these results have potentially important implications for disease management.