Mesenchymal stem cell (MSCs) has recently emerged as an appealing and potential therapeutic strategy to cure a diverse range of diseases in the orthopaedic field. Owing to its capacity of osteogenic differentiation, most of researches just focused on promoting MSC differentiation. With the in-depth study, MSCs homing is also a key issue for bone formation and bone diseases treatment, which have been described that MSCs mobilize from in situ environment (bone marrow) and migrate into injured tissues during the healing process through peripheral circulation. MSC homing is the incipient step of bone formation. MSCs need to firstly migrate to the bone surface and then differentiate into osteogenic cells to enhance bone repair. Promoting MSCs homing have been shown to improve recovery of several orthopedic diseases, such as osteoporosis, fracture, bone defect and wear-particle-related osteolysis. Therefore, further research on MSCs homing may provide a new thinking for treatment of osteoporosis.
Keywords: Mesenchymal stromal cells; Osteogenesis; Review.