Abstract

Bone is a hard but dynamic organ that is constantly remodeled throughout the life process. The dynamic balance between bone resorption and bone formation is very important. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have self-renewal and pluripotent differentiation; therefore, their roles as the promising tool for the treatment of osteoporosis and other diseases have become the focus in regenerative medicine in recent years. Over the past years, histone methylation has been recognized as a major player in the regulation of osteogenic differentiation of MSC. In this review, we highlight the recent research progress of histone methylation modification and its possible involvement in MSC osteogenesis.

Keywords: Cell differentiation, mesenchymal stem cells, epigenetics, osteogenesis, histone methylation, osteogenic differentiation.