Chinese Academy of Sciences scholar Cell Stem Cell published a paper: The physiological mechanism of adults no longer growing taller

Mammal bones will grow rapidly after birth, but after entering puberty (adolescence), the pattern of rapid growth (lengthening) will gradually change to slow thickening
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What is the mechanism of this change in bone growth patterns before and after puberty? Why does the body no longer grow taller after adulthood? Can long-term exercise promote bone growth?

On September 8, the international academic journal Cell Stem Cell published online the latest research progress of the Zhou Bo research group of the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science (Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences "Tracing the skeletal progenitor transition during postnatal bone formation"
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This work reveals the changes in the properties of skeletal stem cells in mice before and after puberty, which provides a cellular basis for the transformation of bone growth patterns during puberty, and also points out the direction for the continued growth of adult bones

Zhou Bo’s research group has been committed to the study of stem cell developmental regulation.
Their previous research revealed that hematopoietic stem cells are remotely regulated by pituitary hormones during puberty (see "When hematopoietic stem cells encounter puberty")
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In this study, they found that osteoblasts before puberty are mainly derived from Acan+ chondrocytes in the growth plate, while osteoblasts after puberty are mainly derived from Lepr+ stromal cells in the bone marrow

Based on the principle of the dual homologous recombinase system developed by Zhou Bin, Zhou Bo's research group realized the simultaneous tracing of growth plate cartilage and Lepr+ bone marrow stromal cells
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This system not only demonstrated the dynamic transition of the two types of bone stem cells during puberty, but also found that most Lepr+ bone marrow stromal cells originated from growth plate cartilage

Exercise is beneficial to bone growth or thickening? In the animal running experiment, Zhou Bo's research team found that long-term running will significantly promote the osteogenic differentiation of growth plate cartilage, but it has no significant effect on Lepr+ bone marrow stromal cells
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This suggests that insisting on running is more beneficial to the growth of bones before puberty, in other words, exercise-starting from the doll

Researcher Zhou Bo from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences is the corresponding author of this article.
Doctoral student Shu Hui in Zhou Bo's research group and master student Liu Yiming are the co-first authors
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Thanks to researchers Zou Weiguo and Zhou Bin from the Center of Excellence for Molecular Cells, Prof.

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