Fat cells are a culprit in osteoporosis
Approximately 10 million Americans have osteoporosis, also known as a silent disease due to symptoms that go unnoticed until a fracture occurs. Scientists are focused on understanding the mechanisms that contribute to the loss of bone strength, as well as developing therapies for prevention and treatment.

Weibo Hunag, Feng Hua and Tong Suand a team in China published an article in the Journal of Lipid Research. They investigated the relationship between bone marrow adipocytes, or BMAds, and osteoblast bone building cells. BMAds are fat cells that reside in the bone marrow, and contribute to 10% of the total body fat and occupy 50–70% of the marrow cavity space. Their abundance has been associated with aging, postmenopausal period, obesity, radiotherapy and chemotherapy and glucocorticoid treatments.
The researchers treated bone marrow osteoblast cultures with adipocytes and observed that the adipocytes transferred lipid droplets to the osteoblasts. RNA sequencing and Western blot showed that the lipid droplet–filled osteoblasts downregulated osteopontin, a major bone-forming protein, and other osteogenic proteins. Furthermore, the lipids seemed to upregulate the ferroptosis pathway in the osteoblasts, inducing cell death, and it decreased oxidative phosphorylation, which generates cellular energy. When the researchers treated the osteoblasts with ferroptosis inhibitors, they found that impediments to the osteoblast cells were reversed.
This work shows the ferroptosis pathway and proteins such as ABHD5 as important targets for the development of effective treatments and prevention therapies for osteoporosis. Looking ahead, the researchers will conduct further investigations into the activation mechanisms of these pathways to provide a solid foundation for clinical translation.
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in Science
Science highlights or most popular articles

Finding a symphony among complex molecules
MOSAIC scholar Stanna Dorn uses total synthesis to recreate rare bacterial natural products with potential therapeutic applications.

E-cigarettes drive irreversible lung damage via free radicals
E-cigarettes are often thought to be safer because they lack many of the carcinogens found in tobacco cigarettes. However, scientists recently found that exposure to e-cigarette vapor can cause severe, irreversible lung damage.

Using DNA barcodes to capture local biodiversity
Undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, leads citizen science initiative to engage the public in DNA barcoding to catalog local biodiversity, fostering community involvement in science.

Targeting Toxoplasma parasites and their protein accomplices
Researchers identify that a Toxoplasma gondii enzyme drives parasite's survival. Read more about this recent study from the Journal of Lipid Research.

Scavenger protein receptor aids the transport of lipoproteins
Scientists elucidated how two major splice variants of scavenger receptors affect cellular localization in endothelial cells. Read more about this recent study from the Journal of Lipid Research.

Unraveling oncogenesis: What makes cancer tick?
Learn about the ASBMB 2025 symposium on oncogenic hubs: chromatin regulatory and transcriptional complexes in cancer.