Induced pluripotent stem cell technology in bone biology.

Technologies on the development and differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are rapidly improving, and have been applied to create cell types relevant to the bone field. Differentiation protocols to form bona fide bone-forming cells from iPSCs are available, and can be used to probe details of differentiation and function in depth. When applied to iPSCs bearing disease-causing mutations, the pathogenetic mechanisms of diseases of the skeleton can be elucidated, along with the development of novel therapeutics. These cells can also be used for development of cell therapies for cell and tissue replacement.