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Diabetes and Bone Marrow Adiposity

  • Bone and Diabetes (A Schwartz and P Vestergaard, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Osteoporosis Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

This study aims to describe bone marrow fat changes in diabetes and to discuss the potential role of marrow fat in skeletal fragility.

Recent Findings

Advances in non-invasive imaging have facilitated marrow fat research in humans. In contrast to animal studies which clearly demonstrate higher levels of marrow fat in diabetes, human studies have shown smaller and less certain differences. Marrow fat has been reported to correlate with A1c, and there may be a distinct marrow lipid saturation profile in diabetes.

Summary

Greater marrow fat is associated with impaired skeletal health. Marrow fat may be a mediator of skeletal fragility in diabetes. Circulating lipids, growth hormone alterations, visceral adiposity, and hypoleptinemia have been associated with greater marrow fat and may represent potential mechanisms for the putative effects of diabetes on marrow fat, although other factors likely contribute. Additional research is needed to further define the role of marrow fat in diabetic skeletal fragility and to determine whether marrow fat is a therapeutic target.

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Acknowledgments

T. Kim has been supported by a National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grant (5T32 DK007418-35) and the Wilsey Family Foundation. A. Schafer has been supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Clinical Science Research and Development Service, Career Development Award-2 (5 IK2 CX000549); the NIDDK, NIH (R01 DK107629); and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (Junior Faculty Osteoporosis Clinical Research Award). The authors thank Robert Nissenson for his expert review of the manuscript.

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  1. University of California, San Francisco, 1700 Owens St, Room 349, San Francisco, CA, 94158, USA

    Tiffany Y. Kim & Anne L. Schafer

  2. San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Tiffany Y. Kim & Anne L. Schafer

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  1. Tiffany Y. Kim
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Correspondence to Tiffany Y. Kim.

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Anne Schafer and Tiffany Kim declare no conflicts of interest.

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All reported studies by the authors involving human subjects were performed after approval by the appropriate institutional review boards. When required, written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Bone and Diabetes

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Kim, T.Y., Schafer, A.L. Diabetes and Bone Marrow Adiposity. Curr Osteoporos Rep 14, 337–344 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11914-016-0336-x

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