The Flow of Life: Convergent Approaches to Understanding Musculoskeletal Health from Molecular- to Meso-Length Scales
Year: 2025
Type: review
Abstract: In the current perspective and review article, we address the human body as a living ecosystem with collecting watersheds and draining hydrosheds; we integrate our discoveries over the past quarter of a century and pose the critical open research questions to be addressed going forward, with the aim to improve cell, tissue, organ and organismal health. First, we address the flow of fluid through the tissues of the musculoskeletal system, after which we describe the interactions of the fluid, at multiple lengths and time scales, with the molecular to macroscopic non-fluid tissue components, discussing bone and tissues in the context of "living" chromatography and/or electrophoresis columns. Thereafter, we discuss the implications of functional barrier integrity, and the effects of cytokines on active barrier function and molecular transport between organ systems, tissue compartments, and within tissues. In addition, we address the fluid and its flow and the multi-physics implications thereof for the living inhabitants of tissues, i.e., the cells. Finally, we describe the implications of the solid and fluid components and the cellular inhabitants on ecosystem health, where the tissues and organs comprise the organism form interacting ecosystems throughout life and in the context of health and disease. By taking convergent approaches to understanding musculoskeletal, human and environmental health (which themselves are interdependent), we hope to pave new paths of innovation and discovery, to improve the lives of our worlds' inhabitants, from the worlds of our bone and joints and bodies to the interacting ecosystems of our Earth to unknown worlds beyond our current understanding.
Source: Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark
DOI: 10.31083/fbl25231
Author: Melissa Louise Knothe Tate
Language: English
Subfield: Cell Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,500
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, AO Foundation, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Kommission für Technologie und Innovation, National Institutes of Health, Medical Research Council, National Health and Medical Research Council, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation
Awards: Training Program in Musculoskeletal Research, Strength and Resorption of Biodegradable Skull Implants, Mechanical Modulation of Stem Cell Shape and Fate, 5th Bone Fluid Flow Workshop: Organ to Cell, Lab Bench to Bedside, on Earth and in Space, Cleveland, Ohio, September 17-18, 2003, Manufacture and Testing of Next Generation Orthopaedic Implants Harnessing Periosteum's Regenerative Power, ACOUSTICALLY INDUCED MICRODAMAGE TO PREVENT BONE L OSS, G7281940373, 5th Bone Fluid Flow Workshop, The Osteoblastic Monolayer as a 'Gatekeeper'in Bone, CONFOCAL AND TWO-PHOTON MICROSCOPY FOR THE ASSESSM ENT OF COUNTERMEASURES IN BONE LOSS AND IMMUNOLOG
OpenAlex ID: W4409974256