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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Analyzing Ex Vivo Metabolic Flux in Splenic and Cardiac Macrophages and Bone Marrow Monocytes
Published on: March 28, 2025
Understanding metabolic changes in aging bone marrow
Kwasi M Connor1,2, Young Hsu1, Pardeep Kumar Aggarwal1
11Jane Anne Nohl Division of Hematology and Center for the Study of Blood Diseases, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, 441 Eastlake Ave, MC 9172, Los Angeles, CA 90033 USA.
Background:
Aging is associated with complex molecular alterations at the cellular level. Bone marrow exhibits distinct phenotypic, genetic and epigenetic alterations with aging. Metabolic changes in the bone marrow related to aging have not been studied.
Methods:
In this study, we characterized the metabolome and transcriptome of aging murine bone marrow and compared it with bone marrow from young healthy mice and chemotherapy treated mice; chemotherapy treatment is known to induce age-related changes in hematopoiesis.
Results:
The metabolome of the aging bone marrow exhibited a signature of suppressed fatty-acid oxidation: accumulation of free fatty acids, reduced acyl-carnitines and low β-hydroxy butyric acid. The aged bone marrow also exhibited a significant reduction in amino acid and nucleic acid pool. The transcriptome of the aging bone marrow revealed a signature of oxidative stress, known to be associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Lastly, the metabolic and transcriptomic profiles of the bone marrow of chemotherapy treated mice did not show broad age-related changes but rather mostly resembled young healthy mice, suggestive of a lack of 'metabolic aging' with chemotherapy exposure.
Conclusion:
Our results revealed broad changes in lipids, amino acids, and nucleotides in aging marrow tissue. Together, these data provide a rich resource for the study of metabolic changes associated with aging in bone marrow.
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