Osteoblasts, the bone-forming cells, synthesize the macromolecules of the bone matrix including: type I collagen; osteocalcin; osteonectin; osteopontin; proteoglycan I and II; bone sialoprotein; matrix gla-protein; bone glycoprotein 75; several other proteins, which have not been extensively characterized; growth factors, including transforming growth factor beta and fibroblast growth factor. Osteoblasts also have high levels of the membrane-bound enzyme, alkaline phosphatase, which plays a role in matrix mineralization, and receptors for tissue-specific hormones, such as parathyroid hormone, as well as many other hormones, cytokines and growth factors, which regulate bone growth, differentiation and metabolism. The expression of these various proteins, most of which are not unique to bone but which together characterize the bone phenotype, is induced during osteoblastic differentiation in a stepwise fashion, suggestive of multiple regulatory factors. The detailed sequence of the expression of osteoblastic genes in situ has not been fully characterized. It appears that type I collagen and alkaline phosphatase are expressed early during the commitment to the osteoblastic phenotype, whereas osteopontin and osteocalcin appear late during osteoblastic differentiation. Diversity among "osteoblastic" cells is also apparent, probably not all osteoblastic cells express all the features. A large number of osteoblastic models are currently available to study the expression of osteoblast-related genes in vitro. These include primary cultures from calvaria or trabecular bone from several species, including humans, osteosarcoma-derived cell lines, and experimentally immortalized cells. Some of these in vitro models, especially the calvaria-derived cultures, undergo changes which mimic osteoblastic differentiation in vivo. The study of these and other cell models started providing insights into the regulation of gene expression in osteoblastic cells. In addition to a vast body of information on the conditions required for the expression of various proteins in culture and their regulation by hormones and growth factors, more detailed information on specific genes has recently been obtained. For example, regulation of type I collagen gene expression has been studied in osteosarcoma cell lines where 1,25(OH)2 vitamin D3 was shown to act via specific DNA segment(s) in the 5' flanking region of the gene, while parathyroid hormone affected gene expression by altering the stability of the transcripts. TGF beta 1, which stimulates osteogenesis, was shown to promote the transcription of osteopontin and type I collagen, the latter effect requiring the binding site for the transactivating protein, nuclear factor I.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)