Abstract

ARBOLEYA, L.  and  CASTANEDA, S.. Osteoclasts: much more than bone remodelling cells. Rev Osteoporos Metab Miner [online]. 2014, vol.6, n.4, pp.109-121. ISSN 2173-2345.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S1889-836X2014000400007.

The osteoclast has been considered classically as a cell with the exclusive function of bone remodelling, with a gregarious behaviour. However, advances which have been made in recent years have changed this concept drastically, and we now know that this multinuclear cell is subject to complex biological regulation, necessary for it to exert a multifunctional role of unknown dimensions. In addition to its participation as the only cell capable of reabsorbing the calcified bone matrix, the osteoclast is one of the cellular elements effective in the immune system, a function still little-known but expected, given its belonging to the monocyte-macrophage lineage. Its role in other processes, both local, such as as a collaborative element in osteoformation and hematopoietic stem cell niche maintenance, and systemic, is also beginning to be understood. In this review the most significant findings contributing to our understanding of the biology of the osteoclast are analysed, with an eminently practical content and an approach aimed at understanding the possible molecular targets which will allow a better therapeutic treatment of such important diseases as osteoporosis, arthritis or cancer.

Keywords : osteoclasts; osteoporosis; arthritis; RANKL.

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