Bone remodeling to repair fatigue damage resulting from functional loading has been extensively reported. Nevertheless, bony repair designed by the intentional "stress fracture healing" receives less attention even though such protocols have been implemented in our patient care for some time. These include Orthopedic biomechanical loading as in Distraction Osteogenesis, rapid maxillary expansion, and Orthodontic biomechanical stretching, dento-alveolar corticotomy, and Orthognathic sagittal split Osteotomy.

At a high impact, how do osteoblasts respond? Through a series of pharmacological, loss-of-function, and mutation analysis, I will present our work on the transient MMP-13 (collagenase-3) induction by applying high mechanical stretch to osteoblasts, a biological mechanism which might shed light on the molecular mechanism of bone repair.