Research

Hormonal

Bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) is functionally distinct from white and brown adipose tissues, exhibiting high basal glucose uptake but resisting insulin- and cold-stimulated glucose uptake.

Bone marrow fat is not just inert storage; it is a metabolically active tissue that consumes significant glucose at rest but does not respond to insulin or cold like other fats. This suggests that managing overall metabolic health involves factors beyond just visible subcutaneous or visceral fat, and that bone marrow fat may play a larger role in systemic glucose regulation than previously assumed.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
This revealed that BMAT resists insulin- and cold-stimulated glucose uptake... Thus, BMAT is functionally distinct from WAT and BAT. However, in humans basal glucose uptake in BMAT is greater than in axial bones or subcutaneous WAT and can be greater than that in skeletal muscle
Karla J. Suchacki et al. · Nature Communications · 2020

Why this rating

The study uses multiple robust methods including transcriptomics, PET/CT in mice and humans, and protein analysis in rats, providing strong multi-species evidence.

Source

Bone marrow adipose tissue is a unique adipose subtype with distinct roles in glucose homeostasis

Karla J. Suchacki et al. · Nature Communications · 2020

DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-16878-2

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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