#osteoblasts

The Scientific Research Notes of S. Sunkavally, Printed Part, page.195.

Cell Block

Cells are often on the move, but how they navigate obstacles is a little mysterious. Here researchers create a sort of assault course for young pre-osteoblasts – cells destined to develop into bone. A microscope zooms down from above capturing the scene after eight days of challenging growth around a hemispherical bump (cells seem to prefer valleys to mountains). But these cells, highlighted in red with DNA in blue, are adapting. They align their stress fibres – stretchy bundles of actin used to change their shape and direction. Researchers believe cells align some of their stress fibres in the direction of movement while others brace across the cell to limit bending. Cells working together means the tissue can reach out between these obstacles, like climbers strung together navigating a mountain pass (although a million times smaller). Such insights may suggest ways to support migrating cells during development, or tissues remodelling after injury.

Written by John Ankers

Video from work by Sebastien J. P. Callens and colleagues

Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Delft, The Netherlands

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Nature Communications, March 2023

So, guys, here comes us at Moonana again, with another game!

Wishlist Now On Steam!

Watch the trailer now on youtube!

A little message from us before I present to you this skully new game:

This is Nana, lead developer at Moonana! We at Moonana developed Virgo Versus The Zodiac, and are currently working on Keylocker | Turn Based Cyberpunk Action! So what is Osteoblasts? This is a game made by Anglerman on RPG Maker, with soundtrack by Elektrobear. Although I helped here and there with guidance, the rest of the team is not a part on development of Osteoblasts, so this is a game by Anglerman, our animator! I hope you guys will enjoy his work as well and cheer for Anglerman's barely alive new game!

Osteoblasts is a dungeon crawler skeletal RPG about skeletons, by skeletons and for skeletons. If you are not undead leave this page immediately else you'll face the law of Skulls and Bones.

In Osteoblasts, you play as a spooky scary skeleton raised from the dead by a mysterious Cat Witch in a journey to find purpose.  You get to choose a class and go on frightening adventures battling your nemesis - the Dogs - who unburied you from the depths below.

You'll be faced with various quests, meet friendly skeletons, travel to spine-tingling dungeons and fight monsters to get stronger. The entire world has class-specific quests and several randomized elements that will change as you visit them again. But beware - as a sinister skeleton wandering about, not everyone will accept you. The dead aren't as welcome as they should and it's not even halloween yet.

Single character, multiple classes, items, abilities and spells.

Randomized loot affixes which change your skills when equipped.

Multiple Endings.

Barebones battle system.

Heartless story.

Braindead hard difficulty.

Screenshot Saturday Featuring Anuchard, Cloud Jumper, More

Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Screenshot Saturday, where developers, publishers, and more share little peeks from their upcoming games via the #screenshotsaturday tag on social media, keeping us updated on how things are coming on, acting as little previews and whatnot!

Check them out!

Halloween draws near.

Fractured Relationships

Break a bone and a frenzy of activity ensues to repair it. Bone-forming cells (osteoblasts) and their precursors (osteoprogenitors) take charge. However, fractures don’t always heal well. Consequently, growth factors are sometimes given to promote healing, specifically BMP which promotes bone formation and PDGF-BB which maintains osteoprogenitor numbers. Researchers investigate how they work in a mouse bone fracture model. MicroCT of fractured bones (pictured) revealed that adding high dose BMP, low dose BMP or PDGF-BB (top, left to right) promoted bone regeneration compared with no treatment (bottom left) or combining different BMP doses with PDGF-BB (bottom middle and right). Analysing the cell types revealed that BMP2 alone increased osteoblast and osteoprogenitor numbers but failed to do so when combined with PDGF-BB. While separately BMP2 and PDGF-BB promote bone healing, together they have the opposite effect. Further unpicking their interactions may help advance bone healing treatments.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Image adapted from work by Sanja Novak and colleagues

Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Development, UConn Health, Farmington, CT, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in npj Regenerative Medicine, January 2023

Nanoscale Remodelling

Remodelling is complicated, whether it's your house or your bones. Bone remodelling happens when your bones are damaged, whether that's a fracture or everyday strain. Cells called osteoclasts jump into action to break down old bone so new bone can form. Anchoring themselves to the bone, they form a ring-like structure called the sealing zone, into which bone-degrading substances are released without leaking away. Projections made of actin – podosomes – help form the sealing zone, but their organisation at the nanoscale level is unclear. Researchers use super-resolution microscopy to investigate. Human osteoclasts, containing fluorescently tagged actin, were live imaged adhering to bone (pictured). This revealed densely packed actin cores, which form the centre of podosomes, in the sealing zone. Further analysis revealed the activity of these cores was synchronised locally, with groups of cores surrounded by adhesion proteins. This shines a light on the nanoscale lives of podosomes in bone remodelling.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Video from work by Marion Portes and colleagues

Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, Toulouse, France

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, June 2022

Packed with Proline

To build a strong skeleton, osteoblasts, the cells that produce bone, need plenty of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Many proteins involved in bone formation are especially rich in a specific amino acid, proline, so getting enough of it during development is critical for cells to first differentiate into osteoblasts, then make bone. Recent research in mice identified a major route for developing osteoblasts to acquire proline, through a transporter known as SLC38A2. Knocking down the gene for SLC38A2 affected cells’ ability to make key proteins, with consequences for skeletal development: fifteen days after conception, mouse embryos have a recognisable skeleton, including mineralised bone (pictured in pink, with cartilage in blue), but this is substantially reduced in mice lacking SLC38A2. As proline is so crucial to bone development, exploring its role in adulthood might suggest whether proline supplements could also help strengthen bones weakened by age or disease.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Image from work by Leyao Shen and colleagues

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, March 2022