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• Clinical Article •
Analysis of the correlation between bone marrow fat content of human lumbar spine and aging
ZHAO Qing  HU Chunhong  TAO Jian  ZHANG Yue  SHAN Ben 

DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.08.015.


[Abstract] Objective To investigate the correlation between bone marrow fat fraction (FF) of human lumbar spine and aging.Materials and Methods A prospective cohort of 135 volunteers, ranging in age from 30 to 79 years, were recruited to measure the lumbar FF using IDEAL-IQ technology based on magnetic resonance imaging. The subjects were divided into 30+ to 70+ groups according to the interval of 10 years old. The differences and trends of L3 and average FF of lumbar spine (FFL3 & FFA) in different age groups were analyzed. The correlation between bone marrow fat content of lumbar vertebrae and age was analyzed.Results For all subjects, there was no significant difference in age, L1-L5 and average FF between males and females (P > 0.05). After age segmentation, both FFL3 and FFA showed an increasing trend with age in both males and females (P < 0.05). The differences between male and female groups were not statistically significant in the 50+ and 70+ groups (P > 0.05). In 30+ group and 40+ group, FFL3 and FFA of the male were significantly higher than female; while in 60+ group, the male was significantly lower (P < 0.05). Compared to the previous age group, FFL3 and FFA of male subjects increased rapidly after 70 years of age (P < 0.05). Women, on the other hand, grew rapidly after the age of 50 (P < 0.05) and slowed down after the age of 70 (P > 0.05). Both FFL3 and FFA were moderately linearly positively correlated with aging in males (r = 0.516, 0.553, respectively, P < 0.05) and strongly correlated with aging in females (r = 0.777, 0.780, respectively, P < 0.001).Conclusions The bone marrow fat content of male and female lumbar spine show different trends with aging, but both are closely related to it, with rapid growth observed in females after the age of 50 and males after the age of 70.
[Keywords] lumbar spine；bone marrow；fat；aging；correlation；magnetic resonance imaging；IDEAL-IQ sequence

ZHAO Qing1   HU Chunhong2   TAO Jian1   ZHANG Yue3   SHAN Ben1, 3*  

1 Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Huaian Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University/Huaian Second People's Hospital, Huaian 223001, China

2 Department of Radiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China

3 Department of Radiology, Huaian Hospital Affiliated to Yangzhou University, the Fifth People's Hospital of Huaian, Huaian 223300, China

Corresponding author: SHAN B, E-mail: samben1984@yzu.edu.cn

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-03-19
Accepted  2025-07-31
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.08.015
DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.08.015.

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