Marrow Fat Quality Differences by Sex in Healthy Adults

Several studies have demonstrated the relationship between bone marrow adiposity (BMAT) and bone mass. ¹H magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a noninvasive technique able to assess both BMAT quantity and quality. The aim of our study was to perform quantitative and qualitative analyses of BMAT and to investigate its association with bone mineral density (BMD) in healthy nonobese volunteers. Fifty-one healthy volunteers, 21 men and 30 women, underwent 1.5 T ¹H magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the lumbar spine. BMD was determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry of the lumbar spine. Correlation analysis was performed to evaluate association among lipids fractions, BMD, and age. The female and male volunteers had similar body mass index and BMD (p > 0.05). Our data demonstrated an inverse correlation of BMD and BMAT with age, with a stronger correlation of saturated lipids (r = 0.701; p < 0.0001) compared with unsaturated lipids (UL) (r = 0.278; p = 0.004). Importantly, female subjects had the highest amount of UL (confidence interval: 0.685%-1.722%; p < 0.001). Our study reports that men and women with similar BMD and body mass index have striking differences in bone marrow lipids composition, namely women have higher UL than men. In addition, we believe that our study brings new insights to the complex network involving BMAT and other factors that influence bone integrity.