As advances in stem cell technology allow us to regenerate and repair some body tissues and organs, bone differentiation remains extremely inefficient. In particular, the ability to create trabecular bone—the porous bone found at the end of long bones, like the femur—has long evaded researchers. Differentiating and regenerating bone tissue from stem cells has a myriad of uses in bone implants for dental work, osteoporosis treatment, and more.
Larrouture, Q. C., Nelson, D. J., Robinson, L. J., Liu, L., Tourkova, I., Schlesinger, P. H., & Blair, H. C. (2015). Chloride-hydrogen antiporters ClC-3 and ClC-5 drive osteoblast mineralization and regulate fine-structure bone patterning in vitro. Physiological Reports, 3(11), e12607. https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.12607