ALPHY ALPHONSA SEBASTIAN, THIRUMULU PONNURAJ KANNAN1, NORAZMI MOHD NOR AND ASMA-ABDULLAH NURUL
Abstract
All through the history of evolution, the supremacy of many physiological processes have been assisted and supported by intracellular signaling transduction pathways. Cell signaling is the basic element of the complex system of communication that regulates the basic activities of cells. Bone is a highly metabolically active tissue, whose structure and function depends on bone remodeling. This basic physiological process is controlled post–translationally through signaling pathways. In mammalian cells, one of the modulators is MAPK pathway, which is considered as the most ancient signal transduction pathway. This pathway controls numerous functions of cells, ranging from gene expression to survival. In addition to this, several growth factors and cytokines play important roles to activate this pathway to have an effect on bone homeostasis and development. This paper addresses some of the vital aspects of different growth factors and cytokines that regulate various stem cell differentiations to the specific bone cell lineage at the cellular and molecular level.