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Review
. 2023 May 19:19:101686.
doi: 10.1016/j.bonr.2023.101686. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Fracture healing research: Recent insights

Lena Steppe  1 , Michael Megafu  2 , Miriam E A Tschaffon-Müller  1 , Anita Ignatius  1 , Melanie Haffner-Luntzer  1
Affiliations
Review

Fracture healing research: Recent insights

Lena Steppe et al. Bone Rep. .

Abstract

Bone has the rare capability of scarless regeneration that enables the complete restoration of the injured bone area. In recent decades, promising new technologies have emerged from basic, translational and clinical research for fracture treatment; however, 5-10 % of all bone fractures still fail to heal successfully or heal in a delayed manner. Several comorbidities and risk factors have been identified which impair bone healing and might lead to delayed bone union or non-union. Therefore, a considerable amount of research has been conducted to elucidate molecular mechanisms of successful and delayed fracture healing to gain further insights into this complex process. One focus of recent research is to investigate the complex interactions of different cell types and the action of progenitor cells during the healing process. Of particular interest is also the identification of patient-specific comorbidities and how these affect fracture healing. In this review, we discuss the recent knowledge about progenitor cells for long bone repair and the influence of comorbidities such as diabetes, postmenopausal osteoporosis, and chronic stress on the healing process. The topic selection for this review was made based on the presented studies at the 2022 annual meeting of the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) in Helsinki.

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Conflict of interest statement

We do not have a conflict of interest regarding that manuscript. The work was done in the framework of projects funded from the German Research Foundation (HA 8470/1-1 and 251293561 SFB1149).

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Disturbance factors for fracture healing summarized in this review.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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