Abstract
Fracture healing is a multistage repair process that involves complex, well-orchestrated steps initiated in response to tissue injury. The early upregulation of IL-6, osteoprotegerin (OPG), VEGF, and BMPs indicates a central role for these factors in the initiation of cartilage and periosteal woven bone formation. In both callus fracture repair and stress fracture repair, the RANKL/OPG ratio is initially reduced, but peaks earlier in stress fracture healing than callus fracture healing. Though the understanding of the biological processes and molecular signals that coordinate fracture repair has advanced, the cause of variability observed in fracture repair is poorly understood.
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The publication of the proceedings of the 5th Bone Quality Seminar 2010 has been made possible through an educational grant from Servier.
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Fazzalari, N.L. Bone fracture and bone fracture repair. Osteoporos Int 22, 2003–2006 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-011-1611-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-011-1611-4