Bone Zipper

Our bones are a mix of minerals, protein and cells. As you sit reading this, your bone matrix is being gobbled up and reshaped continuously. Bone-gobbling cells, or osteoclasts, are formed by the fusion of smaller cells called monocytes. Normally about ten or so merge into one, but in some bone diseases the process goes into overdrive creating gigantic bone-guzzling monster cells. Scientists have found that where the cell membranes (here fluorescing green) of neighbouring monocytes join, structural proteins (dyed red) in each cell come together to form a ‘zipper’. Understanding what regulates these zips will help researchers figure out why too many cells sometimes fuse and perhaps even how to unzip them.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Jiro Nakamura
• Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
• Reproduced/adapted with permission from Journal of Cell Science
• Published in Journal of Cell Science