GrowTallest

Osteoclasts

The cells that clear hypertrophic cartilage at the chondro-osseous junction, what a growth plate does when they fail, and the drugs that stop them.

Matrix and bonePublished

12 min read43 sources

Osteoclasts: RANKL turns marrow precursors into one large cell with many nuclei. It seals a ring onto the calcified cartilage at the end of the growth plate, fills the sealed pocket with acid and cathepsin K, and cuts that cartilage away so bone takes its place. RANKLfuse into oneCalcified cartilageOsteoclastBoneacid, cathepsin K

Multinucleated, haematopoietic in origin, and the only cells that resorb bone. A growth plate adds length by making cartilage, and that cartilage becomes bone because it is cut away at the chondro-osseous junction and replaced. Osteopetrosis is what that step failing produces — osteoclasts not resorbing bone, and chondroclasts not removing calcified physeal cartilage, throughout growth. The vessels that arrive at…

In this article

  • Differentiation
  • The resorbing machinery
  • When resorption fails in people
  • Chondroclasts and septoclasts
  • Coupling back to formation
  • Compounds

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