Understanding paraxial mesoderm development and sclerotome specification for skeletal repair

Abstract

Regenerative medicine: the challenge of building skeletal tissue A deeper understanding of skeletal tissue development and improvements in tissue engineering will help pluripotent stem cell (PSC) therapies to reach their full potential for skeletal repair. The paraxial mesoderm, an embryonic germ layer, is crucial to the formation of healthy axial skeleton. Shoichiro Tani at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and co-workers reviewed current understanding of paraxial mesoderm development and studies involving in vitro PSC skeletal modeling. The formation of the paraxial mesoderm and associated connective tissues comprises multiple stages, and studies in vertebrate embryos have uncovered critical signaling pathways and cellular components important to PSC modeling. Although many individual cellular components can now be modeled, it remains challenging to recreate three-dimensional skeletal tissues. Such an achievement would facilitate a functioning model of bone metabolism, the next step in achieving skeletal regeneration.