ABSTRACT
Osteonecrosis of the femoral head （ONFH） is a serious orthopedic disease caused by many factors. It is difficult to cure clinically and has a poor prognosis， which poses a serious threat to human health. The pathogenesis of this disease is still unclear. The ONFH caused by different causes involves the disorder of a variety of metabolic pathways in vivo. Abnormal proliferation and differentiation of bone mesenchymal stem cells （BMSCs）， imbalance of bone metabolism， and increased destruction of bone trabeculae caused by abnormal transduction of bone metabolism-related signaling pathways may be the important causes of ONFH. BMSCs are pluripotent stem cells with self-renewal and multidirectional differentiation ability， which have good regeneration rate. Improving the osteogenic and differentiation ability of BMSCs is the key to inhibit bone absorption and promote bone matrix reconstruction， which plays an important role in bone remodeling. In recent years， there are many studies on the prevention and treatment of ONFH in traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）， and it has been found that a variety of single herbs， monomers and compounds can regulate the differentiation direction and process of BMSCs by targeting signal molecules， with great potential for bone defect repair and anti-femoral head necrosis activity. Nowadays， prevention and treatment of ONFH by regulating bone metabolism signaling pathways has become a hot research topic. In this paper， the mechanism and related signal transduction pathways of TCM in preventing and treating ONFH were reviewed to explore some mechanisms of alleviating the rate of bone loss， promoting bone formation， and repairing bone defects， so as to provide reference for further research on the prevention and treatment of ONFH by TCM. The related clinical application studies also provided specific targets for gene-assisted therapy of ONFH.