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Musculoskeletal Physiology: Mechanical Stimulation, Mechanical Disuse and Hormone Signaling

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2025) | Viewed by 283

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL, USA
Interests: osteocytes; disuse; WNT signaling; mechanobiology; estrogen signaling; muscle-bone interactions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since the publication of Wolff’s Law in 1892, it has been recognized that the mechanical environment of tissues is a critical factor in homeostasis and their development. Changes in the mechanical environment, the extracellular matrix composition and hormone levels influence cell signaling pathways, and have an influence at the tissue, cellular and molecular levels. These cell signaling responses, which fall under the category of mechanotransduction, are seen in all of the tissue and cell types in the musculoskeletal system, including the muscle, bone, ligaments, tendons, cartilage and adipose tissue. Each of these tissues is also impacted by changes in hormone signaling—for example, estrogen receptors play critical roles in bone and cartilage mechanotransduction response, and multiple hormones influence the production of collagen and other extracellular matrix proteins. This Special Issue will focus on the tissue-, cell-, and molecular-level response of the musculoskeletal system to mechanical stimulation and/or disuse, and the influence of hormonal signaling in these tissues. We welcome papers that look at the influence of mechanical stimuli changes and hormonal signals in muscle, bone, ligaments, tendon, cartilage and adipose tissue. Special consideration will be given to papers that look at the intersection of mechanical and hormonal signaling in these systems.

Dr. Whitney A. Bullock
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • mechanotransduction
  • musculoskeletal
  • hormonal signaling
  • muscle–bone crosstalk
  • mechanical stimuli
  • mechanical disuse

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 5809 KB  
Article
Senolytic Treatment Improves Responsiveness to Mechanical Loading in the Skeleton of Aged Mice
by Connor J. Cunningham, Hui Jean Kok, Joshua N. Farr, Sundeep Khosla and Alexander G. Robling
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2025, 26(22), 11233; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms262211233 - 20 Nov 2025
Abstract
Aging plays a major role in the development of numerous chronic diseases, one of which is a marked decline in skeletal health. Beyond diminishing bone mass and strength, mammals of advanced age experience a decline in skeletal mechanotransduction—that is, the ability of the [...] Read more.
Aging plays a major role in the development of numerous chronic diseases, one of which is a marked decline in skeletal health. Beyond diminishing bone mass and strength, mammals of advanced age experience a decline in skeletal mechanotransduction—that is, the ability of the skeleton to respond adaptively to mechanical perturbation. One possibility for the loss of mechanotransduction in bone with aging is an age-associated increase in the population density of senescent cells—those cells that have undergone irreversible cell cycle arrest, resistance to apoptosis, and production of a modified secretome (the SASP) that has damaging effects to nearby healthy (non-senescent) cells. We investigated whether the presence of senescent cells might drive some of the diminished mechanical response observed in aged bone, by testing the hypothesis that the clearance of senescent cells via intermittent senolytic treatment promotes mechanical responsiveness in an aged skeleton. C57BL/6 mice aged 6 months and 22 months were treated weekly with the senolytic cocktail Dasatinib and Quercetin (D + Q) for 1 month, then subjected to low level in vivo mechanical loading of the ulna for 1 week. The 6-month-old mice exhibited a doubling of load-induced ulnar periosteal bone formation when treated with D + Q, compared to vehicle-treated mice, but the periosteal response to loading was not significantly altered by D + Q in the aged (22-month) mice. We further probed the efficacy of D + Q in mechanotransduction by switching to an endocortical model—the axial tibia loading system. Here, the 22-month-old mice had nearly double the load-induced endocortical bone formation compared to vehicle-treated mice. We further assayed the cortical bone gene expression profile in loaded and control tibias from treatment-naïve 6-month and 22-month mice, to determine whether there is significant overlap between mechanically induced signaling genes and SASP genes. We found significant load-induced changes among several SASP genes, suggesting that inhibition of the SASP (i.e., senomorphics) might interfere with mechanical signaling from otherwise healthy cells. In summary, clearance of senescent cells via intermittent D + Q treatment is effective at improving endocortical mechanical responsiveness in the aged skeleton, which is commonly diminished throughout the course of aging. Full article
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