Review

Authors: Sally Roberts, Pauline Colombier, Aneka Sowman...

The extent of ageing in the musculoskeletal system during the life course affects the quality and length of life. Loss of bone, degraded articular cartilage, and degenerate, narrowed intervertebral discs are primary features of an ageing skeleton, and together they contribute to pain and loss of mobility. This review covers the cellular constituents that make up some key components of the musculoskeletal system and summarizes discussion from the 2015 Aarhus Regenerative Orthopaedic Symposium (AROS) (Regeneration in the Ageing Population) about how each particular cell type alters within the ageing skeletal microenvironment.

Topics: Aging; Bone and Bones; Cartilage, Articular; Cellular Senescence; Chondrocytes; Humans; Intervertebral Disc; Musculoskeletal System

PubMed: 27748151
DOI: 10.1080/17453674.2016.1244750

Review

Authors: Lei Lei, Zhenkang Wen, Mingde Cao...

Piezo1, a mechanosensitive ion channel, has emerged as a key player in translating mechanical stimuli into biological signaling. Its involvement extends beyond physiological and pathological processes such as lymphatic vessel development, axon growth, vascular development, immunoregulation, and blood pressure regulation. The musculoskeletal system, responsible for structural support, movement, and homeostasis, has recently attracted attention regarding the significance of Piezo1. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary of the current research on Piezo1 in the musculoskeletal system, highlighting its impact on bone formation, myogenesis, chondrogenesis, intervertebral disc homeostasis, tendon matrix cross-linking, and physical activity. Additionally, we explore the potential of targeting Piezo1 as a therapeutic approach for musculoskeletal disorders, including osteoporosis, muscle atrophy, intervertebral disc degeneration, and osteoarthritis.

Topics: Humans; Ion Channels; Animals; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Musculoskeletal System; Chondrogenesis; Mechanotransduction, Cellular; Osteogenesis; Muscle Development

PubMed: 38994033
DOI: 10.7150/thno.96959

Review

Authors: Alireza Savadipour, Daniel Palmer, Erica V Ely...

PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 are mechanosensitive cation channels that are highly expressed in numerous tissues throughout the body and exhibit diverse, cell-specific functions in multiple organ systems. Within the musculoskeletal system, PIEZO1 functions to maintain muscle and bone mass, sense tendon stretch, and regulate senescence and apoptosis in response to mechanical stimuli within cartilage and the intervertebral disc. PIEZO2 is essential for transducing pain and touch sensations as well as proprioception in the nervous system, which can affect musculoskeletal health. PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 have been shown to act both independently as well as synergistically in different cell types. Conditions that alter PIEZO channel mechanosensitivity, such as inflammation or genetic mutations, can have drastic effects on these functions. For this reason, therapeutic approaches for PIEZO-related disease focus on altering PIEZO1 and/or PIEZO2 activity in a controlled manner, either through inhibition with small molecules, or through dietary control and supplementation to maintain a healthy cell membrane composition. Although many opportunities to better understand PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 remain, the studies summarized in this review highlight how crucial PIEZO channels are to musculoskeletal health and point to promising possible avenues for their modulation as a therapeutic target.

Topics: Cell Membrane; Ion Channels; Mechanotransduction, Cellular; Muscles; Musculoskeletal System; Humans

PubMed: 36717101
DOI: 10.1152/ajpcell.00544.2022

Review

Authors: Ryan A Sprouse, Aaron M McLaughlin, George D Harris...

Braces and splints can immobilize and protect joints, reduce pain, decrease swelling, and facilitate healing of acute injuries. They are also used for injury prevention and chronic pain reduction, and to alter the function of a joint. The medial unloading (valgus) knee brace is an option for patients with medial knee osteoarthritis, but evidence of long-term benefit is limited. The patellar stabilizing brace helps maintain proper patellar alignment but has mixed results in treating patellofemoral pain syndrome. The patellar tendon strap is effective in treating pain from patellar tendinopathy. The knee immobilizing splint is used after surgery to prevent reinjury and for acute or presurgical management of quadriceps rupture, patellar tendon rupture, medial collateral ligament rupture, patellar fracture or dislocation, and other acute traumatic knee injuries. Use of a functional ankle brace is more effective than immobilization or a compression wrap in terms of functional outcomes after an acute ankle sprain and prevention of future ankle sprains. The thumb spica splint is effective for the treatment of thumb carpometacarpal osteoarthritis and de Quervain tenosynovitis, and may be used for patients with suspected scaphoid fractures. A wrist splint has short-term effectiveness in treating symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome but may not be more effective than other conservative therapies.

Topics: Braces; Humans; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Musculoskeletal System; Splints

PubMed: 30365284
DOI: No ID Found

Review

Authors: K M Khan, A Scott

Mechanotransduction is the physiological process where cells sense and respond to mechanical loads. This paper reclaims the term "mechanotherapy" and presents the current scientific knowledge underpinning how load may be used therapeutically to stimulate tissue repair and remodelling in tendon, muscle, cartilage and bone. The purpose of this short article is to answer a frequently asked question "How precisely does exercise promote tissue healing?" This is a fundamental question for clinicians who prescribe exercise for tendinopathies, muscle tears, non-inflammatory arthropathies and even controlled loading after fractures. High-quality randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews show that various forms of exercise or movement prescription benefit patients with a wide range of musculoskeletal problems.1(-)4 But what happens at the tissue level to promote repair and remodelling of tendon, muscle, articular cartilage and bone? The one-word answer is "mechanotransduction", but rather than finishing there and limiting this paper to 95 words, we provide a short illustrated introduction to this remarkable, ubiquitous, non-neural, physiological process. We also re-introduce the term "mechanotherapy" to distinguish therapeutics (exercise prescription specifically to treat injuries) from the homeostatic role of mechanotransduction. Strictly speaking, mechanotransduction maintains normal musculoskeletal structures in the absence of injury. After first outlining the process of mechanotransduction, we provide well-known clinical therapeutic examples of mechanotherapy-turning movement into tissue healing.

Topics: Exercise Therapy; Humans; Mechanotransduction, Cellular; Musculoskeletal System; Wound Healing

PubMed: 19244270
DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.2008.054239

Review

Authors: Thomas von Arx, Marc J. Nakashima, Scott Lozanoff...

The individual appearance and facial expression are based on the musculoskeletal system of the face. The bones of the face contribute to the anterior portion of the skull. This region is also referred to as the facial skeleton or viscerocranium. The muscles of the face include all mimetic muscles innervated by the cranial nerve VII (facial nerve). Two masticatory muscles (masseter, temporalis) that are supplied by the motoric portion of the cranial nerve V3 (mandibular nerve) also contribute to the contour of the face. The mimetic muscles (also known as facial muscles or skin muscles) generally originate from underlying bone surfaces and insert to the skin of the face or intermingle with other facial muscles. This complex musculature contributes to the functioning of the orofacial sense organs and the mediation of emotional and affective states (facial expression). Other soft tissue components of the face include the fasciae and fat compartments. The face commonly exhibits a superficial and a deep fascia, and various facial fat compartments are present.

Topics: Face; Facial Muscles; Facial Nerve; Masseter Muscle; Temporal Muscle

PubMed: 30056693
DOI: 10.61872/sdj-2018-09-442

Authors: Antonio Barile, Alfonso Reginelli, Massimo De Filippo...

The study of the musculoskeletal system has always been one of the most important application for diagnostic imaging in radiology (1-4).

Topics: Humans; Musculoskeletal System; Periodicals as Topic

PubMed: 29350633
DOI: 10.23750/abm.v89i1-S.7006

Authors: Walter Herzog

Topics: Animals; Disease Models, Animal; Exercise; Exercise Therapy; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Humans; Musculoskeletal System; Obesity; Risk Factors

PubMed: 32099718
DOI: 10.1016/j.jshs.2019.11.004

Review

Authors: Yan Luo, Shengyuan Zheng, Wenfeng Xiao...

During cell differentiation, growth, and development, cells can respond to extracellular stimuli through communication channels. Pannexin (Panx) family and connexin (Cx) family are two important types of channel-forming proteins. Panx family contains three members (Panx1-3) and is expressed widely in bone, cartilage and muscle. Although there is no sequence homology between Panx family and Cx family, they exhibit similar configurations and functions. Similar to Cxs, the key roles of Panxs in the maintenance of physiological functions of the musculoskeletal system and disease progression were gradually revealed later. Here, we seek to elucidate the structure of Panxs and their roles in regulating processes such as osteogenesis, chondrogenesis, and muscle growth. We also focus on the comparison between Cx and Panx. As a new key target, Panxs expression imbalance and dysfunction in muscle and the therapeutic potentials of Panxs in joint diseases are also discussed.

Topics: Humans; Connexins; Disease Progression; Musculoskeletal System; Animals; Osteogenesis

PubMed: 38705887
DOI: 10.1038/s41413-024-00334-8

Authors: Richard J Wakefield, Peter V Balint, Marcin Szkudlarek...

Ultrasound (US) has great potential as an outcome in rheumatoid arthritis trials for detecting bone erosions, synovitis, tendon disease, and enthesopathy. It has a number of distinct advantages over magnetic resonance imaging, including good patient tolerability and ability to scan multiple joints in a short period of time. However, there are scarce data regarding its validity, reproducibility, and responsiveness to change, making interpretation and comparison of studies difficult. In particular, there are limited data describing standardized scanning methodology and standardized definitions of US pathologies. This article presents the first report from the OMERACT ultrasound special interest group, which has compared US against the criteria of the OMERACT filter. Also proposed for the first time are consensus US definitions for common pathological lesions seen in patients with inflammatory arthritis.

Topics: Arthritis, Rheumatoid; Humans; Hypertrophy; Joints; Musculoskeletal System; Synovial Membrane; Synovitis; Tenosynovitis; Terminology as Topic; Ultrasonography

PubMed: 16331793
DOI: No ID Found