Open AccessHistorically significant events in the discovery of RANK/RANKL/OPG
Author(s) -
Thomas Martın
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
world journal of orthopedics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 43
ISSN - 2218-5836
DOI - 10.5312/wjo.v4.i4.186
Subject(s) - rankl , osteoprotegerin , medicine , rank ligand , regulator , drug discovery , osteoblast , intracellular , microbiology and biotechnology , receptor , osteoclast , ligand (biochemistry) , tumor necrosis factor alpha , bioinformatics , cancer research , biology , gene , genetics , activator (genetics) , in vitro
After it was suggested 30 years ago that the osteoblast lineage controlled the formation of osteoclasts, methods were developed that established this to be the case, but the molecular controls were elusive. Over more than a decade much evidence was obtained for signaling mechanisms that regulated the production of a membrane - bound regulator of osteoclastogenesis, in the course of which intercellular communication in bone was revealed in its complexity. The discovery of regulation by tumor necrosis factor ligand and receptor families was made in the last few years of the twentieth century, leading since then to a new physiology of bone, and to exciting drug development.