Epigenetic Regulation of Osteogenic and Chondrogenic Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Culture

Management of mesenchymal stem cells (mscs) capabilities to differentiate in to osteogenicand chondrogenic lineageswould be of utmostimportancefor theirfuture use in difficultto treat cases of destroyed bone and cartilage. thus, an understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms as important modulators of stem cell differentiation might be useful.epigenetic mechanism refers to a process that regulates heritable and long-lasting alterations in gene expression without changing the dna sequence. such stable changes would be mediated by several mechanisms including dna methylation and histone modifications.theinvolvementofepigeneticmechanismsduringmscboneandcartilagedifferentiationhasbeeninvestigatedduringthepastdecade.thepurposeofthisreviewistocoveroutstandingresearch worksthat have attempted to ascertain theunderlying epigeneticchanges ofthe nuclear genomeduring invitrodifferentiationof mscs into bone andcartilagecell lineages. understanding such genomic alterations may assist scientists to develop and recognize reagents that are able to efficiently promote this cellular differentiation.beforesummarizingtheprogressonepigeneticregulationofmscboneandcartilagedifferentiation,abriefdescriptionwillbegivenregardinginvitroconditions thatfavor msc osteocyticand chondrocytic differentiationandthe main mechanismsresponsible forepigeneticregulation of differentiation.