时间：2009年8月3日（周一）上午9：00－11：00，

地点：教1南208会议室

Osteocytes as Mechno-senor for Bone

X. Edward Guo (郭向东)

Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Director, Bone Bioengineering Laboratory

It has been accepted that bone adapts to changes in the mechanical environment, the

mechanisms by which bone cells detect or respond to these changes is still unclear.  It is

well recognized that the mature bone cells, osteocytes embedded in the lacunae can sense

mechanical stimulation in bone tissue and transfer these signals to bone forming

osteoblasts, which can secret organic matrix to form new bone tissue.  Osteocytes forms

extensive intercellular processes with each other as well as with osteoblasts via gap

junctions.  In many aspects, the osteocytes form elaborate network similar to neuronal

network.  Using in vitro three-dimensional explant model and two-dimensional bone cell

network model, we have examined the roles of osteocytes in sensing mechanical loads and its

regulation of bone formation via osteocyte-osteoblasts communication.  In addition, the

network features of osteocytes under mechanical loading were examined and the underlying

biochemical pathways have been examined.  These results provide novel observations of

osteocytes as the key mechanosenor.

Bio of the Speaker:

Professor Guo received his bachelor degree in Applied Mechanics from Peking University,

China in 1984.  Then, he obtained his MS in Engineering Sciences and PhD in Medical

Engineering and Medical Physics from Harvard University in 1990 and 1994, respectively.  He

has been with Columbia University since 1996, where he is currently a Professor of

Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.  His research interests

include: Bone Mechanics, Bone Adaptation to Mechanical Loads and its Cellular/Molecular

Mechanisms, Computational Modeling of Biological Tissues, Cellular Biomechanics, Imaging

Analysis of Bone Microstructure, Micropatterning of Cells.  He has won a number of awards,

including new Investigator Recognition Award from the Orthopaedic Research Society, National

Research Service Award from National Institutes of Health, CAREER Award from National

Science Foundation and was elected to Fellow of American Institute for Medical and

Biological Engineering.  In 2007, he and Professor Baohua Ji of Tsinghua University received

Joint Research Fund for Overseas Chinese Young Scholars from National Natural Science

Foundation of China.  In 2007, he co-founded Biomedical Engineering Society’s Cellular and

Molecular Bioengineering journal where he is current co-editor-in-chief.