“Culture shock” from the bone cell's perspective: emulating physiological conditions for mechanobiological investigations

Abstract

Bone physiology can be examined on multiple length scales. Results of cell-level studies, typically carried out in vitro, are often extrapolated to attempt to understand tissue and organ physiology. Results of organ- or organism-level studies are often analyzed to deduce the state(s) of the cells within the larger system(s). Although phenomena on all of these scales—cell, tissue, organ, system, organism—are interlinked and contribute to the overall health and function of bone tissue, it is difficult to relate research among these scales. For example, groups of cells in an exogenous, in vitro environment that is well defined by the researcher would not be expected to function similarly to those in a dynamic, endogenous environment, dictated by systemic as well as organismal physiology. This review of the literature on bone cell culture describes potential causes and components of cell “culture shock,” i.e., behavioral variations associated with the transition from in vivo to in vitro environment, focusing on investigations of mechanotransduction and experimental approaches to mimic aspects of bone tissue on a macroscopic scale. The state of the art is reviewed, and new paradigms are suggested to begin bridging the gap between two-dimensional cell cultures in petri dishes and the three-dimensional environment of living bone tissue.