REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Bone Research
This article is part of the Research TopicSecondary Causes of Bone FragilityView all 3 articles
The Therapeutic Potential of Descending Regulatory Pathways from Brain to Bone in Osteoporosis: Focusing on the Brain-Bone Axis
Provisionally accepted
- The Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Sichuan, China, Luzhou, China
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Osteoporosis (OP) is a growing global health concern, characterized by reduced bone mass, deterioration of bone microarchitecture, and consequently increased bone fragility. The brain-bone axis, a complex regulatory network encompassing the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, elucidates the central role of the brain in regulating bone homeostasis. Consequently, this axis has become a major focus of interdisciplinary research into the pathogenesis of OP. However, the current understanding of the descending regulatory pathways from the brain to the bone remains incomplete. Therefore, this paper preliminarily explores the mechanisms and experimental evidence of different descending regulatory pathways from a new perspective. It integrates multiple descending regulatory pathways, discusses some of their interrelationships, and reveals the complex network nature of central bone metabolism regulation. Our objective is to elucidate the role of the central nervous system (CNS) in OP pathogenesis, thereby offering new insights and directions for future research on its prevention and treatment.
Keywords: Bone fragility, Brain-bone axis, Interrelationship, neuroendocrine, Osteoporosis
Received: 20 Nov 2025; Accepted: 03 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Rong, Zhang, Xu, Chen, Wang, Sheng, Yang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Li Sheng
Guoqiang Yang
Guiquan Chen
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