Current topics in bone biology

This book covers a wide spectrum of areas related to basic bone research. While bone remodeling, bone development, and osteoclast biology constitute the main contents, topics important to the understanding of bone metabolism and treatment of bone-related diseases are also intensively reviewed. Three chapters are dedicated to the classic topic of bone mechanics, which include a brief overview of the mechanostat hypothesis, a more detailed review on mechanotransduction and bone adaptation, and a chapter illustrating the basic principles of bone mechanical testing. New emerging fields such as skeletal stem cells, bone tissue engineering, phytoestrogens applications, and bone genetics study using mouse models, are also covered in detail. The book closes with a special chapter dedicated to state-of-the-art advances in bone biology research.