The potential role of muscle in bone repair

Bone repair is a complex phenomenon involving many cell types and signaling factors. Substantial evidence exists to suggest that stem cells originating from local osseous tissues, particularly the periosteum, can contribute to bone repair. However, there are situations where injury or post-surgical management can deplete the amount of, and/or access to these crucial progenitors. The fact that bone repair can still occur in these circumstances implicitly reflects the existence of compensatory secondary systems. One potential alternate source of osteoprogenitors is muscle, which is closely associated with bone and typically suffers trauma during an orthopedic insult. While muscle access is known to be beneficial to bone repair, this is conventionally credited to its high vascularity, and thus its contribution to the local blood supply. However, there is emerging evidence to suggest that progenitors from muscle may directly contribute to bone healing. Defining the role of muscle in bone formation and repair has significant clinical implications, particularly where promoting access to this tissue may enhance the repair outcome.