The functional matrix hypothesis revisited. 1. The role of mechanotransduction.

The periodic incorporation of advances in the biomedical, bioengineering, and computer sciences allow the creation of increasingly more comprehensive revisions of the functional matrix hypothesis. Inclusion of two topics, (1) the mechanisms of cellular mechanotransduction, and (2) biologic network theory, permit this latest revision; presented here in two interrelated articles. In this first article, the several possible types of intracellular processes of mechanotransduction are described. These translate the informational content of a periosteal functional matrix stimulus into a skeletal unit (bone) cell signal. The correlation between the strengths of the endogenous electrical fields produced by muscle skeletal muscle activity, and those to which bone cells maximally respond are stressed. Further, a physical chain of macromolecular levers, connecting the extracellular matrix to the bone cell genome is described, suggesting another means of epigenetic regulation of the bone cell genome, including its phenotypic expression.