Risk Factors Associated with Bone Marrow Adiposity Deposition in Postmenopausal Women in the CASH China Study

Li Xu; Yanping Gong; Qian Zhao; Glen M Blake; Kai Li; Yong Zhang; Qianqian Liu; Chunlin Li; Xiaoguang Cheng

doi:10.2147/DMSO.S401910

Risk Factors Associated with Bone Marrow Adiposity Deposition in Postmenopausal Women in the CASH China Study

Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2023 Apr 24:16:1167-1176. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S401910. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Li Xu^#¹, Yanping Gong^#², Qian Zhao³, Glen M Blake⁴, Kai Li¹, Yong Zhang¹, Qianqian Liu², Chunlin Li², Xiaoguang Cheng¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Endocrinology, the Second Medical Center, the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disease, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China.
³ International Medical Center, Sichuan University West China Hospital, Chengdu, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Biomedical Engineering Department, King's College London, London, UK.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: To investigated the factors that influence BMAC.

Patients and methods: Quantitative computed tomography (QCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were applied to measure abdominal fat areas, liver fat content, erector muscle fat content, and BMAC of the L2-4 vertebrae. Sex hormone, adipokine, and inflammatory factor levels were measured on the same day.

Results: Although age, erector muscle fat content, estradiol, testosterone, and adiponectin/leptin levels showed correlations with BMAC in the correlation analysis, the equations obtained from the whole population by multivariate analysis were unclear. Patients were stratified according to BMAC quartiles, and differences were found in vBMD, age, estradiol, testosterone, and erector muscle fat content among the four quartiles. Logistic analyses confirmed that age, estradiol/testosterone ratio, and TNF-α had independent effects on BMAC in all quartiles. In addition, height was related to higher BMAC quartiles, and glucose was related to lower BMAC quartiles.

Conclusion: Compared to other body fats, BMAC is a unique fat depot. Age, estradiol/testosterone ratio, and TNF-α are all key influencing factors related to BMAC in postmenopausal women. Furthermore, height and glucose levels were related to BMAC in the higher and lower BMAC quartiles, respectively.

Keywords: adipokines; age; bone marrow adiposity; postmenopausal women; sex hormones.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Beijing Hospitals Authority Clinical Medicine Development of Special Funding Support (ZYLX202107), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81971617, 2019), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2020YFC2004900), the Youth Training Program of Military Medical Science and Technology (20QNPY103), the Translational Medicine Projects of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (2017TM-021), and the High Level Talents “Discipline backbone” Project of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital (XKGG2021123).