Experimental study demonstrates mature osteoblast dedifferentiation during fin and skull repair in zebrafish, indicating broad cellular plasticity in teleost bone healing.
Key Points
To determine whether mature osteoblast dedifferentiation is restricted to appendage regeneration or represents a widespread mechanism of traumatic bone repair in zebrafish.
Induced traumatic bone injuries, including fin fractures and skull injuries, in adult zebrafish.
Tracked osteoblast lineage, proliferation, and movement using photoconvertible Kaede protein and Cre-driven genetic fate mapping.
Mature osteoblasts surrounding both fin and skull injury sites downregulated mature differentiation markers, re-expressed pre-osteoblast markers, and resumed proliferation.
Lineage-traced mature osteoblasts actively migrated directly into the injury gap to reconstitute and replace damaged bone tissue.