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The action of a key gene is required to maintain a lifelong supply of stem cells that make bone healing possible, a new study finds.

These immature cells are known to get the signal to either continually divide to make more copies of themselves (self-renewal) as a ready pool of replacements, or to mature into cells with a specific function like bone-building. Once they mature, they generally cannot reverse the process, so the supply of stem cells is limited. Such pools become even more depleted as people age.

Led by NYU Langone Health researchers, the new work identified the gene HOXA10 as a lifelong protector of the stem cell supplies, keeping them from maturing into bone-building cells called osteoblasts until needed for healing.

For the study, publishing online Nov. 4 in Science Advances, the authors examined the state of bone stem cells in mice for 15 months after they deleted HOXA10 in 6-day-old pups. By the end of that period, 90% of the stem cells and descendants that should have been present were gone due to a loss of self-renewal.

, the Jyoti Menon Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. "We asked how they remain as stem cell replacements in the first place.

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