ABSTRACT
Bone is a complex, highly organized and mineralized connective tissue. Even though, bone has a high regeneration capacity; there is a strong need for clinical solutions for bone damage and loss, which makes bone tissue engineering a very active field of research. Recent years have seen an increased appreciation of the immune component in bone healing and homoestasis, defined as osteoimmunology. This chapter provides an overview of the structure of the bone, the bone cells and their functions, the steps of bone healing and the role of immune system in bone regeneration. This is followed by elaboration of the bioactive agents and cellular interactions within osteoimmunology context and the examples of osteoimmunoomdulation.
