Large bone defects caused by trauma, tumor, fracture complications, etc. are common problems in the field of orthopaedics. Due to limited material source, long treatment period and various complications, the application and clinical effect of autologous or allogeneic bone transplantation are limited by the traditional bone grafting method for the treatment of large bone defects. In recent years, the application of adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) in bone tissue engineering provides a new idea and perspective for the treatment of large bone defects, and to a large extent overcomes the shortcomings and deficiencies of traditional bone transplantation. Many factors play important roles in the osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs. The influencing factors and research progress of osteogenic differentiation of ADSCs in bone tissue engineering are reviewed in this paper.