Effect Of Alcohol On Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells Differentiating Into Adipocytes And Osteoblasts

Background and ObjectiveOsteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is common diseases in orthopaedics. Alcohol and steroids are the most common causes. Non-traumatic ONFH causes pain, dysfunction of the hip joint and leads to the replacement of the joint as the progress of the disease can not reversed. Many studies have been done on the etiology and the mechanism, but the real etiology has not been revealed. With the discovery of the multi-potential differentiation ability of the bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and the mechanism of the BMSCs in differentiating into the osteoblasts, chondrocytes and adipocytes linage. The repairing ability of the bone tissue is also abnormal, especially the absence of the intramembranous ossification in the femoral head. What happens to the BMSCs of patients with ONFH and their differentiation into the osteoblasts have become the new center of focus for many researchers. Yisheng Wang has reported that alcohol can induce the absence of hematopoitic tissue in femoral head, adipocyte proliferation and hypertrophy, lipidoses and bone cell degeneration. There is uniformity with the earlier period pathological changes of ONFH. Alcohol may induce BMSCs to differentiate into adipocytes and inhibit BMSCs to differentiate into osteoblasts. This has been revealed as the new mechanism. But reasearches done on human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells...