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Paper of the Month - October 2025
selected by the BMAS Scientific Board

Skeletal Site-Specific Lipid Profile and Hematopoietic Progenitors of Bone Marrow Adipose Tissue in Patients Undergoing Primary Hip Arthroplasty

Drenka Trivanović1, Marko Vujačić2,3, Aleksandra Arsić4, Tamara Kukolj1, Milica Rajković1, Nikola Bogosavljević2,3, Zoran Baščarević2,3, Mirjana Maljković Ružičić5, Jovana Kovačević5,6, Aleksandra Jauković1.
  • 1 Group for Hematology and Stem Cells, Institute for Medical Research, National Institute of Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
  • 2 Institute for Orthopedy Banjica, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
  • 3 Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
  • 4 Centre of Research Excellence in Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Medical Research, National Institute of Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
  • 5 Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
  • 6 Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development of Serbia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.

Correspondence:Drenka Trivanović, drenka.trivanovic@imi.bg.ac.rs

Metabolites 2025 Jan 4;15(1):16.

PMID: 39852359 | PMCID: PMC11767117 | DOI: 10.3390/metabo15010016


Abstract

Background/objectives: Bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) has been described as an important biomechanic and lipotoxic factor with negative impacts on skeletal and hematopoietic system regeneration. BMAT undergoes metabolic and cellular adaptations with age and disease, being a source of potential biomarkers. However, there is no evidence on the lipid profile and cellularity at different skeletal locations in osteoarthritis patients undergoing primary hip arthroplasty.

Methods: Acetabular and femoral bone marrow (BM) and gluteofemoral subcutaneous adipose tissue (gfSAT) were obtained from matched patients undergoing hip replacement surgery. BM, BMAT, and gfSAT were explored at the levels of total lipids, fatty acids, and cells by using thin-layer and gas chromatography, ex vivo cellular assays, and flow cytometry.

Results: BMAT content was significantly higher in femoral than in acetabular BM. Total lipid analyses revealed significantly lower triglyceride content in femoral than in acetabular BMAT and gfSAT. Frequencies of saturated palmitic, myristic, and stearic acids were higher in femoral than in acetabular BMAT and gfSAT. The content of CD45+CD34+ cells within femoral BMAT was higher than in acetabular BMAT or gfSAT. This was associated with a higher incidence of total clonogenic hematopoietic progenitors and late erythroid colonies CFU-E in femoral BMAT when compared to acetabular BMAT, similar to their BM counterparts.

Figure1 from Trivanovic t al

Figure 1: Human bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) and the importance of skeletal sites and BMI. (A) Fluorescent staining of neutral lipids (green), F-actin (red), and the nucleus (blue). Representative images are presented. Scale bar is 10 µm. (B) BMAT content in acetabular and femoral bone marrow. (C) Number of nucleated cells per mL of BMAT counted in BMAT ac and BMAT fem isolated after collagenase digestion. (D) Linear regression with the correlation coefficients of patient BMIs and the distribution of bone marrow mononuclear cells. Non-normally distributed values were analyzed with the Mann–Whitney test, where ** p < 0.01. Results are shown as mean ± SD. Abbreviations: ac= acetabular BMAT; fem= femoral BMAT; gfSAT = gluteofemoral subcutaneous adipose tissue.
 

Conclusions: Collectively, our results indicate that the lipid profiles of hip bone and femoral BMAT impose significantly different microenvironments and distributions of cells with hematopoietic potential. These findings might bring forth new inputs for defining BMAT biology and setting novel directions in OA disease investigations.


Keywords: bone marrow adipose tissue; fatty acid; hematopoietic progenitors; osteoarthritis; stem cells.

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