Abstract:

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs act as key regulators in osteoblast differentiation which show a new insight for us into the osteoblast differentiation progress.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the regulation rules of microRNAs on related regulators and signaling in osteoblast differentiation.
METHODS: A computer online search of CNKI database (2000-2011) and Web of Knowledge database (1995-2011) was performed by the first author using “osteoblast, signaling, regulators, microRNA” as the key words in Chinese and English, respectively, to retrieve relevant literatures about microRNA regulating osteoblast differentiation. Articles with stale content and duplicate literatures were excluded, and finally 37 literatures were included for analysis.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: MicroRNAs play an important role in cell growth, cell differentiation, and cell death which are a novel regulation way to biology. MicroRNAs play critical rules on related regulators and signaling in osteoblast differentiation. The expression of several target proteins may be regulated by the same microRNA, and the expression of one target protein may be regulated by many microRNAs. The interactions between microRNAs and their targets must be considered when making a further research on the regulation of gene expression of microRNAs.