Osteocyte Isolation and Culture

Osteocytes are the most abundant cells in bone. Although individual osteocytes are buried in an isolated position within bone matrix, they remain in contact with one another and with cells on the bone surface by long cell processes that run via small channels, termed canaliculi, through the bone matrix. Where the cell processes of two osteocytes meet in a shared canaliculus, gap junctions provide intracellular contact (1 ). For a long time osteocytes were outside the mainstream of bone research. Increasing interest in the mechanoregulation of bone has changed this, and today there is a general consensus that osteocytes play a pivotal role as mechanosensors and effectors in bone (2 ). Whether osteocytes have other functions remains to be elucidated.